Eric Bolo is the CTO of Batvoice Technologies, a speech analytics startup based in Paris, France. Eric talks about building a custom speech-to-text system for their flagship product, Call Watch.

He introduces us to speech analytics and audio-mining, and describes some typical applications. We go into detail about speech-to-text (STT) technologies, and discuss the pros and cons of using cloud STT services such as Google speech versus building a custom STT system yourself.

Eric tells us about the latest open source tools and frameworks for building STT systems, and how to get that precious voice data to train our models. We learn how to build and annotate a custom voice dataset ourselves, and hear his advice on starting a voice first company.

This is a great first episode to kick off the series! Eric is super smart, with excellent technical skills and a real passion for voice technology. We already know each other quite well, so I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather have as my first guest on the show. I know you're gonna enjoy hearing what he had to say!

#001 - Speech to Text - Eric Bolo, Batvoice - CLIP 1

#001 - Speech to Text - Eric Bolo, Batvoice - CLIP 2

In this episode I talk with Charles Cadbury, owner of the London-based technology consultancy, Champers Advisory, about his experience building voice applications, and the fascinating future of voice technology. He was great fun to talk to, and had plenty of surprising facts and interesting stories to share. You're going to really enjoy listening to this episode!

Charles has built or consulted on over 350 digital products for his clients over the years, covering web, social, mobile, and and now Voice. He has most recently worked with Lola.tech, helping them to create Dazzle.ai, a product that enables personalised digital conversations between travel customers and travel providers across voice and text channels.

Charles shares his extensive knowledge and experience on a wide range of topics related to voice. We cover the challenges when working with client data, how payment transactions can and will be handled over voice, and how voice assistants will change the landscape of consumer sales and marketing, and much more.

Links from the show:
Champers Advisory Consultancy https://champersadvisory.com 
Charles Cadbury Personal Site https://charlescadbury.com
Charles Cadbury on Twitter https://twitter.com/CharlesCadbury 
Dazzle.ai voice platform https://www.dazzle.ai/
Lola.tech https://www.lola.tech/

Get involved:
All episodes and show notes at: http://voicetechpodcast.com 
Leave a 5 star review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/voice-tech-podcast/
Leave a 5 star review on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/voice-tech-podcast
Support the show at: http://patreon.com/voicetechpodcast
Please tell a friend about us or share on social media!
Reach us on Twitter @voicetechcarl, or email carl@voicetechpodcast.com

#004 - Building Knight Rider's KITT - Charles Cadbury, Champers Advisory - CLIP 2

In this episode I talk with Charles Cadbury, owner of the London-based technology consultancy, Champers Advisory, about his experience building voice applications, and the fascinating future of voice technology. He was great fun to talk to, and had plenty of surprising facts and interesting stories to share. You're going to really enjoy listening to this episode!

Charles has built or consulted on over 350 digital products for his clients over the years, covering web, social, mobile, and and now Voice. He has most recently worked with Lola.tech, helping them to create Dazzle.ai, a product that enables personalised digital conversations between travel customers and travel providers across voice and text channels.

Charles shares his extensive knowledge and experience on a wide range of topics related to voice. We cover the challenges when working with client data, how payment transactions can and will be handled over voice, how voice assistants will change the landscape of consumer sales and marketing, and much more.

Links from the show:
Champers Advisory Consultancy https://champersadvisory.com 
Charles Cadbury Personal Site https://charlescadbury.com
Charles Cadbury on Twitter https://twitter.com/CharlesCadbury 
Dazzle.ai voice platform https://www.dazzle.ai/
Lola.tech https://www.lola.tech/

Get involved:
All episodes and show notes at: http://voicetechpodcast.com 
Leave a 5 star review on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/voice-tech-podcast/
Leave a 5 star review on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/voice-tech-podcast
Support the show at: http://patreon.com/voicetechpodcast
Please tell a friend about us or share on social media!
Reach us on Twitter @voicetechcarl, or email carl@voicetechpodcast.com

#004 - Building Knight Rider's KITT - Charles Cadbury, Champers Advisory - CLIP 1

Dogac Basaran is a post-doctoral researcher at CNRS, the French national scientific research centre. Today, in part 1 of 2, Dogac gives us a crash course in signal processing, where we learn what signal processing is and discover some of its many applications. 

Leveraging his teaching experience, Dogac uses simple language and real-world examples to explain the fundamental signal processing concepts that are used in voice technology today. He defines frequency, period, and stationarity, and describes how sound cards use sampling and the Nyquist theorem to convert analogue signals into digital.

He then recommends some good educational resources and software packages, so you can learn more about signal processing and get started right away on your own programming projects.

Links from the show:
Dogac Basaran on Github: https://github.com/dogacbasaran
Dogac Basaran's websites: https://dbasaran.wp.imt.fr/ and http://dogacbasaran.com/
Signal Processing MOOC on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/dsp 
MATLAB: https://matlab.mathworks.com/
Python Scipy STFT package: https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/generated/scipy.signal.stft.html 
Humming databases: Jang, ThinkIT, IOSCAS and Task2
ISMIR association: http://www.ismir.net/
ISMIR 2018 conference: http://ismir2018.ircam.fr/
CNRS: http://www.cnrs.fr/
IRCAM: https://www.ircam.fr/

Subscribe to get future episodes:
Apple iTunes : https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
Google Podcasts : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google 
Google Android : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-android 
Stitcher : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher 
Spotify : https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm 
Alexa : https://amzn.to/2mr8mCj 
Website : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast

Join the discussion:
Newsletter : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-newsletter 
Reddit : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-reddit 
Facebook group : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-group
Facebook page : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-page
Follow on Twitter : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-twitter
Email me : carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Support the Voice Tech Podcast:
Tell a friend about us or share on social media!
Leave a 5 star review on iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
Leave a 5 star review on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher
Become a patron at: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-patreon

Signal Processing Basics for Audio - Dogac Basaran, CNRS - Voice Tech Podcast ep.008 - CLIP 1

Sebastian Hanfland is the CEO of the audio branding consultancy, Hanfland And Friends. His team help companies define their their brand in audio form, in order to promote brand recognition, increase the perceived quality of products, and influence customers. 

Sebastian explains what audio branding is, and how he selects the right voices and sounds for a brand. We explore many interesting examples of audio branding for products, customer service, workplaces and more, and hear a demo of their latest audio branding project for Humanzing Technologies. We also cover the typical challenges faced on audio branding projects, and what brands can do to prepare for the voice technology revolution.

This fantastic episode tells you all you need to know about sound design and audio branding. It is essential listening, not only for people working with voice technologies, but also for designers, marketers and content producers from every industry.

Links from the show:
Full show notes: https://voicetechpodcast.com 
Hanfland and Friends website (English): www.hanfland-and-friends.com
Hanfland and Friends website (German): www.hanfland-und-freunde.de
Hanfland and Friends Alexa Skill Stubbs: https://www.hanfland-und-freunde.de/blog/
Hanfland and Friends LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-hanfland-6b8643153/
Hanfland and Friends Twitter: @HanflandFreunde
Humanizing Technologies Sound Branding: https://www.humanizing.com/de/sound-2/
Audio Spotlight by Holosonics: https://www.holosonics.com/
Amazon Polly: https://aws.amazon.com/polly/

Subscribe to get future episodes:
Apple iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google 
Google Android: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-android 
Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher 
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm 
Alexa: https://amzn.to/2mr8mCj 
Website: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast

Join the discussion:
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-newsletter 
Reddit: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-reddit 
Facebook group: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-group
Facebook page: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-page
Follow on Twitter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-twitter
Email me: carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Support the Voice Tech Podcast:
Tell a friend about us or share on social media!
Leave a 5 star review on iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
Leave a 5 star review on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher
Become a patron at: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-patreon

Audio Branding & Sound Design - Sebastian Hanfland & Friends - Voice Tech Podcast ep.011 - CLIP 1

Florian Eyben is the CTO of audEERING, an audio analysis company that specialises in emotional artificial intelligence. Florian is a leading expert in voice emotion analytics, machine learning and signal processing, and our conversation is a great introduction to harnessing emotion in the voice. We discuss many of the incredible applications of voice emotion analytics, and dive into some projects carried out by audEERING for major brands in market research, call centers, social robotics, health and many more.  

In the second half of the episode we explore openSMILE, audEERING's open source research toolkit for audio feature extraction. It is currently the state-of-the-art in affective computing for audio, and is the most widely-used tool for emotion recognition tasks in research and industry. 

We also discuss the GeMAPS standard acoustic parameter recommendation, emotional dimensions such as valence and arousal, what data to use when developing emotion detection algorithms, and the future of multimodal emotion-enabled interfaces. It's an emotion-filled episode that you won't want to miss!

Links from the show:
Full show notes: https://voicetechpodcast.com 
Alexa skill building guide: https://voicetechpodcast.com/skillguide
audEERING site: https://www.audeering.com 
audEERING on Facebook: http://bit.ly/aud-facebook 
audEERING on Twitter: @audEERING
audEERING on Instagram: audEERING
audEERING on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/aud-linkedin 
openSMILE: https://opensmile.audeering.com 
GeMAPS:  https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7160715
Florian Eyben Google Scholar: http://bit.ly/florian-eyben-scholar 
ICASSP 2019:  https://2019.ieeeicassp.org/
VoiceBot podcast: http://voicebot.ai

Subscribe to get future episodes:
Apple iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google 
Google Android: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-android 
Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher 
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm 
Alexa: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-alexa 
Website: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast 

Join the discussion:
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-newsletter 
Reddit: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-reddit 
Facebook group: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-group
Facebook page: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-page
Follow on Twitter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-twitter
Become a patron at: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-patreon
Email me: carl@voicetechpodcast.com

Voice Emotion Analytics - Florian Eyben, audEERING - Voice Tech Podcast ep.014 - CLIP 2

Voice Emotion Analytics - Florian Eyben, audEERING - Voice Tech Podcast ep.014 - CLIP 1

Episode description:

Pranas Kiziela is the CTO of Eddy Travels, a personal travel advisor that connects travelers with travel products and services. Eddy Travels is available in popular chat apps like Messenger, Telegram, Viber and Slack, and supports both text and voice based interaction.

We discuss the benefits of booking travel though a conversational interface, and the big voice-AI opportunities in the travel space right now. We tackle some of the major design considerations faced during the product build, including the limitations of the big chatbot platforms, the different challenges of working with voice and text, and how to incorporate a bot into a text conversation between two humans.

We also spend some time discussing the technical aspects, including the story of why Eddy Travels started with DialogFlow but later migrated to RASA NLU. We cover the many advantages of using an open-source framework, specifically much greater control over training the NLU models, unit testing and source control, and model management capabilities. It's a wide ranging conversation that has something for everyone, and will make you want to book your next holiday!

Highlights from the show:

Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep034 

Links from the show:

* Eddy Travels https://eddytravels.com 
* Try Eddy Travels on Messenger https://m.me/eddytravels 
* Eddy Travels on Twitter https://twitter.com/eddytravels 
* Eddy Travels on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eddytravels/ 
* RASA https://rasa.com
* MLFlow https://mlflow.org
* DialogFlow https://dialogflow.com
* Telegram telegram.org
* Viber https://www.viber.com
* Slack http://slack.com

Subscribe to get future episodes:

* Apple iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
* Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google
* Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher
* Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm
* Alexa: https://voicetechpodcast.com/alexa
* Website: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast

Join the discussion:

* Weekly Newsletter: https://voicetechpodcast.com/newsletter
* Sponsor the Show: https://voicetechpodcast.com/donate
* Medium Blog: https://voicetechpodcast.com/medium
* Write for Blog: https://voicetechpodcast.com/publish
* Email: carl@voicetechpodcast.com
* Follow on Twitter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-twitter
* Reddit: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-reddit
* Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-group
* Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-page

Support the Voice Tech Podcast:

* Tell a friend about us or share on social media!
* Leave a 5-star review on iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
* Leave a 5-star review on Stitcher: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-stitcher
* Become a patron: https://voicetechpodcast.com/donate

Chatbot Vacations - Pranas Kiziela, Eddy Travels - Voice Tech Podcast ep.034 - CLIP 2

Chatbot Vacations - Pranas Kiziela, Eddy Travels - Voice Tech Podcast ep.034 - CLIP 1

Episode description:

David Borish is Chief Creative at PRIMO AI, a New York startup that recommends the highest performing Speech-to-text (STT) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) services for a particular dataset and geographical region. We discover what the biggest problem with speech to text systems is today, and why trying to solve it by hiring data scientists can be prohibitively expensive.

We also discuss the advantages of acquiring a technology patent, why David chose to recently enter the voice space, and the approach he takes when selecting his next entrepreneurial challenge. David is a seasoned startup veteran who believes passionately in the future of voice, and our conversation contains many valuable lessons to take away.


Highlights from the show:

* Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep038 

Links from the show:

* Phebi Voice Search https://getphebi.com
* AllAboutVoice Conference, Munich, Oct 11: http://bit.ly/30pzhAW - 15% discount with code VOICETECH
* Robocopy Conversation Design Course http://bit.ly/2Q3QRts - 20% off with code VOICETECH20
* Primo AI: voiceprimo.com 
* Become a beta tester: info@voiceprimo.com 
* David Borish homepage: http://www.davidborish.com 
* Headspin: https://www.headspin.io
* Kaldi: http://kaldi-asr.org/
* Google Cloud STT: http://bit.ly/2QkCYHN

Subscribe to get future episodes:

* Apple iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol
* Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-google
* Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IZr5hm

Join the discussion:

* Weekly Newsletter: https://voicetechpodcast.com/newsletter
* Medium Blog: https://voicetechpodcast.com/medium
* Write for Blog: https://voicetechpodcast.com/publish
* Email: carl@voicetechpodcast.com
* Twitter: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-twitter
* Reddit: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-reddit
* Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-group
* Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-facebook-page

Support the Voice Tech Podcast:

* Become a patron: https://voicetechpodcast.com/donate
* Tell a friend about us or share on social media!
* Leave a 5-star review on iTunes: https://apple.co/2LqW4ol

Speech-to-Text Selection - David Borish, PRIMO AI - Voice Tech Podcast ep.038 - CLIP 1

Episode description

Petar Ojdrovic is the founder of Home Service, a voice-based solution for vacation rental management that Improves the guest experience while helping hosts save time and drive 5 star reviews. I'm also joined by my co-host, the inimitable Charlie Cadbury, CEO of Say It Now, who elevates the discussion with his vast experience of building apps for the travel and hospitality industries.

In this episode we learn about the typical problems vacation rental hosts and guests face during their stays in vacation rentals like Airbnb, and how hosts can use voice to tackle these. We cover  designing a human into the loop, the ways multimodal should be used, how to improve intent resolution.

Charlie introduces us to the concept of a crap wizard, and how you can avoid having your voice app users feel like one, and Petar shares advice for budding voice developers and startup founders. This in-depth conversation really showcases the potential of voice to gather data and offer value to users.


Highlights from the show

* Available at http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast-ep041

Airbnb Hospitality by Voice - Petar Ojdrovic, Home Service - Voice Tech Podcast ep.041 - CLIP 2

Today on the show, we welcome Carl Robinson. Yep, the script has been flipped, and your favorite Voice Tech Podcast host is now on the other side of the mic as today’s guest! Interviewing Carl live from Project Voice is the brilliant Keri Roberts – host of the Inside Voice Podcast.

In this episode, we find out more about Carl’s background as a data scientist, how he got interested in voice tech through emotion detection technology, and the fascinating array of projects he has worked on since those earlier days. We also discover why the Voice Tech Podcast was started, how it has progressed since its inception in 2018, and the many insights Carl has gleaned from the array of guests and conversations he has had on this very podcast show to date.

From the boom in voice tech education, to hearables and wearables, biometric smart speaker detection, and the remarkable advancements being made in emotion detection – Carl also shares the technology he is most excited about right now, and his predictions for future trends. Whether you are new or old to the world of voice tech, or perhaps just seeking some great tips for your own podcast – this is a fantastic episode that will connect you to the heart of your host and the latest in voice tech!

Inside Voice - Carl Robinson - Voice Tech Podcast ep.066

Today on the show, we welcome Steve Tingiris. Steve is a leader in the field of voice development, a serial entrepreneur, and amazingly he still codes everyday. He’s the founder of Dabble Lab, which builds tech products and tools to automate business workflows with a strong focus on AI-powered digital assistants and voice. He also runs the hugely popular DabbleLab YouTube channel.

The topic of today’s show is getting started with voice development. Here, we hear from Steve about the various stages of his entrepreneurial journey, his experience working with clients, the many challenges he’s faced in the industry, as well as his deep expertise in the Twilio system and developing IVR solutions. Steve also describes what the state of natural language understanding is today and shares his advice for budding voice developers entering the field. 

We also get stuck into his YouTube channel and all the tutorials he’s consistently put out over the years to help new and experienced developers hone their craft. If you are just getting started in voice development, this episode is packed with great advice, resources, and motivation to get you going!

Getting Started - Steve Tingiris, Dabble Lab - Voice Tech Podcast ep.067

Today on the show, we welcome Jan König, co-founder of Jovo. Jovo is an open source layer that lets you build and run voice experiences across multiple devices and platforms including, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung Bixby, mobile phone and web apps, and many more!

In this episode, we get an inside look into Jovo’s architecture and business model, as well as the latest and greatest version of the build-once deploy-everywhere solution for voice. Jovo version 3 has just been released, and it expands the number of channels you can build for, which now includes Twilio, Facebook Messenger, and even Samsung Bixby. The product has significantly matured and is used by many top brands to build world-class apps today. 

Not only do we dig into all the new Jovo v3 features, but we speak about the challenges involved with building an open source startup. On the dev side, we take a look at standards, software patterns, and the design considerations between voice bots versus chat bots. On the industry side, we explore best practices, where the voice market is going beyond the big platforms, and much, much more.

Jan is a highly concentrated source of information, and the insights per minute in this episode is off the charts! So, if you’re looking to have your mind-blown, in multiple directions, then take a listen!

The Voice Layer - Jan König, Jovo - Voice Tech Podcast ep.068

As the number of voice tech innovations continues to rise, how are investors responding? Is there interest in this potential investment niche or has it not yet penetrated the investor psyche enough for serious capital injection? Today's guest, Yannick Oswald of Mangrove Capital Partners, shares his investor insights into the voice tech space. 

Mangrove Capital is a venture capital firm chasing transformational ideas around the world, with a focus on early-stage companies before product launch. They have several very successful seed investments such as Skype and Wix, and are very bullish on voice tech. We kick off this episode with Yannick explaining the firm’s interest in the voice space. With a relatively new interest of only a year and a half, they feel that voice can catalyze a shift in technological social interaction. 

While conventional social media is a solitary, private experience, voice has the potential to take away the fake façade of other social platforms and reestablish the authentic connection. From there, we learn more about Mangrove’s voice investment, Sybel, and how the platform seeks to reinvent audio entertainment. Yannick found that listening to a documentary provided the same entertainment experience as watching it on screen, which is what sparked his interest. We then move onto podcasts and audio content, and where Yannick sees opportunities for investors. He talks about how this niche will branch off into different genres and the likely determining factors of success. The lockdown has changed the way that people interact with voice and audio platforms, and companies can use this time to cement their places in users’ lives. 

The show rounds off with some advice from Yannick for voice tech entrepreneurs and what’s in store for Mangrove Capital moving forward. This was a great discussion, so be sure to tune in!

Investing in Voice - Yannick Oswald, Mangrove Capital - Voice Tech Podcast ep.069

As the voice industry continues to grow in leaps and bounds, conversational components stand out as a key development moving forward. What are these conversational components? Simply put, they are modular blocks of customizable, reusable conversational services, accessible via APIs that can fit together in a myriad of ways to form larger, conversational flows. 

Conversational Components, known as CoCo are leading the charge with this modular-based component approach. In this episode, Yaki Dunietz, the company's CEO, who has been working in conversational AI for more than 20 years, and Jason Gilbert, lead conversation designer at CoCo, who has designed text-to-voice experiences across a range of conversational channels, join us to share more about the company and its unique approach to chatbots. 

We kick the show off by diving into CoCo’s service as a hub and directory for conversational components. We learn about how the components are accessed, vendor publishing, and how searches on the platform work. From there, we move onto how the bots handle queries, both in and out of context. It is vitally important for these bots to engage in small talk, which requires a few thousand smaller bots all to fire at the same time. Through increasing access, CoCo hopes to encourage collaboration and in doing so, propel developments in the space forward. 

We round off the show by learning more about Yaki and Jason’s respective backgrounds and how it shaped their thinking, what it takes to build a bot’s personality, and what the future has in store for CoCo.

voice_tech_podcast_070_clip

This is a special bonus episode recorded on the new Rumble Studio audio platform that I’ve created. Rumble Studio is a conversational A.I. SaaS for businesses to plan, record, publish and distribute audio for content marketing, and in a fraction of the time it takes today. The conversations are recorded asynchronously, so I’ve coined the new term, BotcastTM.

The very first BotcastTM to be published on the Voice Tech Podcast is with Rabbi Elijah C Dordek! Elijah (Elie) is the founder of ShanenLi, an app that uses speech recognition to create personal tutor for text based tasks. It’s being first used to help children in the Ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jewish community learn to read and speak Hebrew, and Elie has plans to expand this to any language and any type of text.

We discuss the unique teaching methods Elie has developed, and the value of distance learning during the COVID crisis. We also explore the challenges involved in training speech-to-text models with children, and how technology in general can be used to address cultural pain points.

Elie is looking for excited educators and inspired investors who would like to start pilot programs in schools, for any text based reading tasks. He is in search of a technical co-founder who can help with the programming and/or speech engine technology. If you are interested in joining Elie, or know anyone who might be, please reach out to him at elijahcdordek@shanen.li 

As this is the first interview of this kind, please let me know what you liked or disliked by tweeting @VoiceTechCarl, or email me at carl@voicetechpodcast.com.

Someone to Practice With - Elie Dordek, ShanenLi - Voice Tech Botcast bc.001

Brand recognition has long been about logos, taglines, and advertising campaigns, but what if you could use a voice that sounded like your brand to add another level of brand awareness? This is one of the many interesting services ReadSpeaker, an innovative text-to-speech company offers, and its founder and CTO, Niclas Bergström, joins us today. 

In this episode, we learn more about the company and the variety of products they offer. From web-based SaaS solutions for management and educational systems to hyper-customized voices for brands, their solutions can be deployed to any hardware ranging from embedded systems to high-capacity servers on their cloud. From there, we dive into what it takes to build a voice for brands. There are so many characteristics that make voices what they are, which is why brands and ReadSpeaker need to have a common understanding of what makes a voice what it is. 

As the industry evolves, so too do the expectations of what a synthetic voice can do, and while people have become much more accepting of them, it’s still important to realize their limitations. We discuss these constraints along with when to use a human voice over a synthetic one. From there, we dive into what the tech giants are doing in the space, and why Niclas believes that small companies will lead the innovation charge rather than the last players. 

We round the show off by talking about the future of the industry generally as well as for ReadSpeaker specifically, and there are some big things on the horizon.

Text-to-Speech Wizardry - Niclas Bergstrom, ReadSpeaker - Voice Tech Podcast ep.071

Aside from having an excellent product, one of the best ways to foster adoption is by building community support early on. One company that has reaped the rewards of taking this approach, is Rasa, an open-source, natural language understanding framework that helps companies build mission-critical contextual assistants, and its co-founder and CTO, Alan Nichol, joins us today. 

We kick this episode off by learning more about Rasa’s mission to become the no-brainer technology for building conversational AI. They are achieving this through their relentless commitment to community, developer empowerment, and by what Alan calls a ‘no fairy-dust attitude.’ Building conversational AI is not easy, which is why Rasa is inviting developers along for the journey. From there, we move onto why Alan believes it’s important to get products in front of users at soon as you can. Rather than waiting for full development, if you get what you can into people’s hands and let them use it, the feedback will be much richer, culminating in a better outcome. 

We then move into discussing the benefits of open-source. There are almost an infinite number of advantages according to Alan, from increased innovation surface area to the ability to squeeze out extra performance. However, the financial realities are important, and we discuss how Rasa’s enterprise products fulfill these needs. 

We round the show off by diving into the five levels of conversational AI and where we currently are, why intents are hindering the scalability of these products, and what’s in the pipeline for Rasa.

Open Source NLU - Alan Nichol, Rasa - Voice Tech Podcast ep.073

When we talk about the way that AI will shape the future, there are such polarized beliefs, with one camp fearing it and the other vehemently dismissing these fear-filled claims. Today’s guest, Byron Reese, believes that these opposing views stem from fundamentally different world views. 

Byron is the former CEO of Gigaom, a well-respected technology publication and tech research company that writes about trends and tech that business leaders need to know about and understand. He is also a prolific author, host of the Voices in AI podcast, and futurist. 

This episode covers a wide range of topics, and we kick off by delving into the world of voice tech. As Byron has used many of these platforms, numerous questions have come to the surface for him. We ponder whether our interactions with these technologies may spill over into our daily human to human communication as well as how these platforms may corrode human rights. 

From there, the discussion moves to whether we, as humans, are machines. As a question Byron asks all his podcast guests, he feels that the reductionist answers he frequently hears do not account for the inexplicable ways our humanity manifests itself. Then, we discuss Byron’s book, The Fourth Age, where he unpacks how this technological period will ultimately shape history. He delves into why the advent of speech, agriculture, and the invention of writing and the wheel, were historical turning points, which depart from the obvious reasons people may think. 

After this, we get into the hotly contested AI vs jobs debate. Byron’s insights into why the proliferation of this technology will not result in net job losses are refreshing and backed by historical data. Looking at the jobs technology destroys alone does not account for the opportunities created. 

We round the show off with Byron discussing the importance of following your passion, why the ability to learn new things is the most important skill we have, and what’s in store for him. Be sure to listen to this extra-special episode!

The Fourth Age - Byron Reese, Gigaom - Voice Tech Podcast ep.074

Today on the show, we welcome Jason Croyle, the Director of Partnerships at Speak2Web, and Dr. Saksham Sharda, the Creative Director at Outgrow, to talk about interactive websites and website marketing through conversational interaction.

In this episode, we learn more about the features of both the Speak2Web and Outgrow platforms and how they differ. Speak2Web helps customers create an integrative web and voice experience, whereas Outgrow is focused more on interactive content for your website (think calculators, quizzes, and chatbots). We discuss how you can improve customer experience and accessibility with voice interactivity, and debate whether talking to a desktop or a website will eventually be a thing of the future! 

On the tech side, we get stuck into the effect of voice applets and widgets on conversion rates, SEO, as well as the importance of gamification in the information age. Speaking with a website is not something that most of us are 100% familiar with just yet, and this episode offers a unique glimpse into the future of the web.

Interactive Web - Speak2Web & Outgrow - Voice Tech Podcast ep.075

Host of the Voice Tech Podcast. Interviews with voice technology professionals, boosting your knowledge and technical skills. Voice interfaces, voice assistants, data science, machine learning and much more. Subscribe now!

technology, tech, voice, speech, assistant, bot, chatbot, alexa, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, AI

Voice Tech Podcast

Popular tracks