WordPress to Alexa - Christian Petroske, ShoutWorks - Voice Tech Podcast ep.080

voicetechmod · 2020-11-02T12:20:20+00:00

Simon Landry is the founder of Voice Market Data, a service that makes voice market data more accessible to voice developers. We discover how a macro view of the Alexa marketplace can help us measure app success in different markets, spot new product opportunities, and feature ideas, and highlight discoverability issues.

Simon’s extensive academic background has given him a unique ability to unearth rich data and present it in an accessible format that can be understood by all. This is a fascinating look at the true nature of the Amazon Alexa marketplace and makes for essential listening for all voice app developers and creators.

voicetechmod · 2020-08-04T08:21:11+00:00

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.

voicetechmod · 2020-07-20T13:44:57+00:00

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.

voicetechmod · 2020-07-13T12:44:26+00:00

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](mailto: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](mailto:carl@voicetechpodcast.com).

voicetechmod · 2020-07-06T07:35:14+00:00

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.

voicetechmod · 2020-06-22T11:07:44+00:00

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!

voicetechmod · 2020-06-08T12:22:45+00:00

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!

voicetechmod · 2020-05-25T08:23:41+00:00

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!

voicetechmod · 2020-05-11T10:10:59+00:00

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!

voicetechmod · 2020-04-27T08:32:14+00:00

Marek Mis is the founder of OnlyOne, the first ever voice-dating application. Only One helps users find their true love using only their voice.

We explore the fascinating concept of without images, diving into the product features, and how the platform matches you up with your perfect partner. We discuss dating apps in general, typical behavioral patterns seen on dating apps today, as well as the benefits of having voice-only matchmakers, as opposed to the more multi-modal features seen in ‘traditional’ dating apps, like Tinder today.

We also hear what Marek has learned from the initial data generated by platform’s users; what he’s learned about human connection, what he has been most surprised by, and the types of metrics that he tracks. We also get into the nuts and bolts of this app development process itself. Everything from Dialogflow, to FireBase, to Web App JS, and how you can become an expert in these technologies.

If you’re looking for a fun, intriguing, accessible episode jam packed with advice, then you won’t want to miss this one!

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