V.u.x. World

This week's top stories:Google’s Read Along Vernacular.ai raises $5.1 million led by Exfinity Ventures, Kalaari CapitalHR AI system, Paradox AI gets 40m funding for replacing the ‘boring’ jobsConverseNow has closed a $3.25 million seed funding round led by Bala InvestmentsOmilia, a conversational artificial intelligence platform developer, has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Grafton CapitalGetting the tone right - automated copy generation has to be retrained in a time of crisisStores may use voice assistants to transform shopping, retail consultant saysIn a world fearful of touch, voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri are making our lives easierStartup adjusts medical voice assistant for a Zoom worldFrance launches AI voice assistant to help coronavirus patientsKaty Perry announces new album on AlexaSpirent approved to test AVS productsHow speech recognition techniques are helping to predict volcanoes’ behaviourThe Information by James GleikMIDI SproutLearn guitar on Google Ass

Music has been the top use case on smart speakers pretty much from the beginning. Having any song you like at your beckoning call makes playing music around the house easier than ever. And households that play music out loud are, apparently, happier households. It doesn't require too much thought, either. So, discoverability isn't as much of a challenge as with skills, actions and services. If you want to play some Michael Jackson, just ask. Having said that, music consumption habits are advancing. According to Pandora, more people are listening to up-beat, exercise music during lockdown, presumably to exercise to given the gyms are shut. And more people are listening to more ambient music, too, as well as child friendly playlists. People spending time at home and using their music service to relax and entertain the kids respectively. And there's a growing trend moving away from listening to artists and towards listening to playlists. Random compilations of different tunes grouped aro

Stories covered:Talking elevators and the Scottish elevator sketchContact centre voice biometricsGoogle Assistant's voice matchFacebook Chatbot, Blender, can talk about anything. See some sample dialogues and try it out.Juniper researchNPR Smart Audio ReportPandora's listening habit changesAI conference on Aminal FarmClaire Mitchell on VUX World See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dustin and Kane are joined by Patricia Scanlon, CEO SoapBox Labs, to discuss how its specialist speech technology for kids is being used and scaled across the globe to help kids learn to read and more.In this episode: voice tech for kidsImagine being able to have your child read to an iPad and have it tell them how they’re doing. Whether they’re pronouncing the words right and encouraging them to improve.Imagine, as a parent or teacher, being able to report on different child’s progress so that you can focus on the real areas that need improving.Well, this is what Soapbox Labs enables you to do with its specialist speech technology which you can use to build bespoke applications specifically for kids.You might be wondering 'why would I need speech technology specifically for kids?' Well, kids have totally different voices to adults. Their pitch is higher, they don't always pronounce words properly and it changes across the ages. A 5 year old's voice is different to a 10 year old's voice. Most of the

Deborah Harrison was the very first writer on the Cortana team and defined the personality of Microsoft's digital assistant that is used on over 400m surfaces globally.In this talk, we chat to Deborah about the importance of personality and persona in conversational experiences, and the critical responsibility of ethical design.LinksFollow Deborah on Twitter See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Voice search is growing. As smart speaker adoption increases and people use the voice assistants on their phones more and more, voice is playing an increasing role in more customer journeys.But what's your share of voice? How often does your company 'rank' for the search terms you'd like to rank for?Amazon and Google are tight-lipped about voice search volumes and don't offer any way of tracking voice search performance for websites, skills or actions.Thankfully, Andy Headington and his team at Adido, has created a tool that lets you do just that.In this episode, we speak to Andy about how you can measure your share of voice, and how you can find ways of identifying insights that will enable you to improve you voice search performance.LinksTry Share of Voice  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What is speech recognition and how does it work?Automatics speech recognition (also known as ASR) is a suite of technology that takes audio signals containing speech, analysis it and converts it into text so that it can be read and understood by humans and machines. It's the technology that makes voice assistants like Amazon Alexa able to understand what a user says.There's obviously a whole lot more to it that than, though. So, in today's episode, we're speaking to one of the most knowledgable and experienced speech recognition minds the world has to offer, Catherine Breslin, about just exactly what's going on under the hood of automatic speech recognition technology and how it actually works.Catherine Breslin studied speech recognition at Cambridge, before working on speech recognition systems at Toshiba and eventually on the Amazon Alexa speech recognition team where she met the Godfather of Alexa, Jeff Adams. Catherine then joined Jeff at Cobalt Speech where she currently creates bespoke sp

Voice shopping on Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers is a $2bn market today, and is forecast to explode. I've wrote about the potential of voice shopping for the Harvard Business Review last year, but things are starting to pick up.According Amazon's Patrick Gauthier, 20% of Americans are ready for voice shopping now, and 39% of all Americans will complete some part of their purchase journey via voice by 2022.And while it might not generate a huge percentage of sales today, the learnings that you'll gather through observing and collecting data on how customers are interacting with your brand, will be worth its weight in gold when the volcano erupts. Presented by SparksSparks is a new podcast player app that lets you learn and retain knowledge while you listen.The Sparks team are looking for people just like you: podcast listeners who're also innovative early adopters of new tech, to try the beta app and provide feedback.Try it now at sparksapp.io/vuxIntroducing Shilp Agarw

Corona virus hits voice as Google removes coronavirus actions, Spotify looks like it's releasing a voice assistant and Jovo lets you build voice assistants everywhere.Presented by SparksSparks is a new podcast player app that lets you learn and retain knowledge while you listen.The Sparks team are looking for people just like you: podcast listeners who're also innovative early adopters of new tech, to try the beta app and provide feedback.Try it now at sparksapp.io/vuxStories discussed in this episodeGoogle reject corona virus actionSpotify might be releasing a voice assistantJovo v3, build voice assistants and deploy them everywhereJovo Linkedin vlog Google Read ItGoogle Read It Linkedin vlogAlexa, the OSLive broadcasting on Alexa with the Food NetworkThe end of Alexa Skills?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Food Network aims to the be Peloton of cooking with live video broadcasting on Alexa. Director of Technology and Emerging Platforms at Discovery Inc., Tim McElreath, joins us to share how.Presented by SparksSparks is a new podcast player app that lets you learn and retain knowledge while you listen.The Sparks team are looking for people just like you: podcast listeners who're also innovative early adopters of new tech, to try the beta app and provide feedback.Try it now at sparksapp.io/vuxLive video broadcasting on AlexaThe Food Network are working closely with Amazon to build out features for live video broadcasting on Echo Show devices and aims to be the Peloton of cooking.Tim McElreath shares the story of what the Food Network is up to and how they see voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa shaping the future of engagement and content distribution in future. Through the Food Network app, you can pay a subscription to access premium content such as in-app live interactive cooking shows. Th

Jon Bloom, Senior Conversation Designer at Google, joins us to share what a conversation designer does at Google, as well as some conversation design techniques used at Google, such as 'grounding strategies'. Presented by SparksSparks is a new podcast player app that lets you learn and retain knowledge while you listen.The Sparks team are looking for people just like you: podcast listeners who're also innovative early adopters of new tech, to try the beta app and provide feedback.Try it now at sparksapp.io/vux Conversation design and grounding strategiesConversation design is one of the core skillsets required to create engaging and effective voice and conversational experiences. UX Mag recently wrote about how the role of conversation designer will be one of the fastest growing UX roles in 2020.But what exactly is conversation design? And what does a conversation designer actually do?This week, we're joined by Jon Bloom, Senior Conversation Designer at Google to find out.We discuss the role, w

Maaike Coppens returns to share how you can go from zero to hero in one voice design sprint. From nothing at the beginning to a a validated use case and prototype at the end, with fun in the middle. Presented by ReadspeakerReadspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services.Whether you're needing a TTS voice for your IVR system, voice application, automobile, robot, public service announcement system, website or anywhere else, Readspeaker have you covered.They've been in the TTS game for over 20 years and have in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.If you're in the market for any form of TTS technology, check out Readspeaker today.In this episodeYou can't design conversations without having them. This is Maaike's core message, and it's true. That's why the voice design sprint was born. Taken from the core principles behind the

VaynerMedia are one of the leading global digital agencies. Director of Innovation at VaynerSmart, Claire Mitchell, joins us to share how VaynerMedia approach voice, as well as sharing some insights on situational design and sound design.Listen on:Apple podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | CastBox | Spreaker | TuneIn | Breaker | Stitcher | PlayerFM | iHeartRadioPresented by ReadspeakerReadspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services.Whether you're needing a TTS voice for your IVR system, voice application, automobile, robot, public service announcement system, website or anywhere else, Readspeaker have you covered.They've been in the TTS game for over 20 years and have in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.If you're in the market for a

Ben McCulloch shares his take on why intonation and emotion is imperative in creating high quality and trust-building voice experiences.Presented by ReadspeakerReadspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services.Whether you're needing a TTS voice for your IVR system, voice application, automobile, robot, public service announcement system, website or anywhere else, Readspeaker have you covered.They've been in the TTS game for over 20 years and have in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.If you're in the market for any form of TTS technology, check out Readspeaker today.In this episodeHave you ever met someone who sounds confident? What does confidence sound like?What about fear? Excitement? Sadness?Believe it or not, we can detect emotion in people's voices. We can also detect personality types. Imagine the bullish salesperson or the str

We catch up with 4 Amazon Alexa Champions to discuss the then, now and future of the Alexa skills ecosystem and the voice first community.Presented by ReadspeakerReadspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services.Whether you're needing a TTS voice for your IVR system, voice application, automobile, robot, public service announcement system, website or anywhere else, Readspeaker have you covered.They've been in the TTS game for over 20 years and have in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.If you're in the market for any form of TTS technology, check out Readspeaker today.In this episodeThe Alexa Champions program is an honorary award given by Amazon in recognition of great service to the Alexa platform and ecosystem.All four of today's guests are Alexa Champions, and they take us for a walk down memory lane and discuss:what the community

Twilio is a magical tool, and Autopilot is its NLU platform that voice devs and designers need to check out. In this episode we're taking a look at what Autopilot is, what are its core concepts, and how it differs from other NLU services.To get $10 free, use our referral link at www.twilio.com/referral/ZQRq9vMusic featured in this episode:Blossoming by Sound of MusicLogjam by Sound of MusicSaunter by Sound of MusicMassive_Attack by Sound of MusicTiny_Spoons by Sound of Music See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Adva Levin joins us to share why you should design personas for your voice apps, how you can create them, as well as how to work with voice acting talent.Presented by ReadspeakerReadspeaker is a pioneering voice technology company that provides lifelike Text to Speech (TTS) services.Whether you're needing a TTS voice for your IVR system, voice application, automobile, robot, public service announcement system, website or anywhere else, Readspeaker have you covered.They've been in the TTS game for over 20 years and have in-depth knowledge and experience in AI and Deep Neural Networks, which they put to work in creating custom TTS voices for the world's biggest brands.If you're in the market for any form of TTS technology, check out Readspeaker today.In this episodeClifford Nass and Scott Brave, in their book Wired for Speech, showed that whether you want to or not, humans cannot help but form a picture in their minds about the voice they're hearing. Just from a voice alone, we can form an unders

Sarah Andrew Wilson, Chief Content Officer at Matchbox.io, shares the secret sauce for creating the kind of Alexa skills you can build a business on.In this episode:This week, we speak to Sarah about the Matchbox.io stable of skills and discuss:What it’s like maintaining 18 Alexa skillsThe Opearlo acquisitionUnique advice for people and companies just getting startedThe 3-step Matchbox.io philosophy that runs through each of its Alexa skillsEcosystems and community and how the two drive engagementISPs and how Matchbox.io is monetising Alexa skillsHow changing 1 word led to a 17% increase in conversionsHow Matchbox.io gets its skills discoveredThe potential for advertising on assistant platformsLinksMatchbox.io websiteMatchbox.io on TwitterQuestion of the dayQuestion of the day Facebook groupSarah on LinkedIn See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The first episode of the new year is both a reflection on how far we've come in the last 12 months, and what to look forward to in the year to come. This is a special episode as it's the first of a new decade. And in this episode of the rundown, we're getting deep.  Biggest news stories of 2019:Apple acquires Pullstring - Was this an acqui-hire? Or is Apple using the Pullstring tool internally? Will we ever find out? Either way, 2019 started out with a big acquisition from a big player and showed good early signs of a growing industry.Sonos acquires Snips - Given the importance of privacy, Sonos might have struck gold with Snips, the privacy first voice tech company based in Paris. The sad thing for the industry is that Sonos will not support third party activity any longer and is keeping the tech for its own speakers.This could happen more and more as big companies realise the value of having voice technology and the talent to create and implement it. I just hope there are

How do NPR approach designing voice applications? And how do they engage users to make sure that they're designing the right things for the right people, Ha-Hoa Homano, Sr. Product Manager, Emerging Platforms at NPR joins us to share all.LinksRead more at npr.designLearn with npr.codesFollow Ha-Hoa on TwitterAudio player functionality suggestion on Alexa.uservoice.com (still pending) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.