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VoiceSignals #13 — Musings on Voice tech news
Voice Tech in Latin America
While it’s easy to find data regarding the development of voice technology in the US or in English speaking countries it is very hard to find information when it comes to other countries, some of which surpass in users that of the US. For example, Spanish is the second most spoken language with over 460M native speakers and if you add Portuguese with 209M speakers in Brazil, Latin America sums up close to 670M potential users. In 2019, the voice and speech recognition market in Latin America was estimated to be worth around 49 million U.S. dollars, while it’s expected to rise to 325 million by 2024. Considering that over 35 million people(~10% of the population) cannot read or write, voice can prove to be the definitive tool for finding information, for everyone. Unfortunately, while Amazon Alexa-powered smart speakers became available in Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay in December 2017, they did not include localization or Spanish language features. In 2018 Alexa has launched in Spanish in Mexico, so it is safe to assume that by now it will be able to respond to questions in Spanish across Latin America. Since 2019, both Alexa and Google Assistant, are available in Brazil in Portuguese, a feature essentially responsible for opening the market since only a small portion of the population has advanced English skills.
Our research into companies that build voice technology solutions, in Latin America, yielded a poor set of results, but much is to be expected now that the ‘big boys’ are starting to offer voice services in native languages.
Google launched in 2016 a collaboration space in Brazil and since 2019 is showing an increased focus on startups working with voice technology. “Voice drastically reduces technology barriers and, along with artificial intelligence and machine learning, will become increasingly present and we will work on that very intensively” according to André Barrence, head at Google for Startups São Paulo.
Telecentro, Argentina’s main telecommunication services provider, became the first in Latin America to roll out voice control solutions. Powered by Nuance Communications their Dragon TV platform, allows users to instantly access an array of content through voice commands.
Atexto, is an Argentine startup, focusing on call centers training machine learning models to listen, comprehend, and create automated responses. Their technology is also able to determine the emotion and intent of a phrase.
Vozy a startup from Colombia that specializes in text-to-speech. According to their site, they provide intelligent virtual assistants that can speak in numerous Spanish accents, providing a friendlier conversational experience for customers who need help with simple FAQs or companies who want to share local promotions.
What we read online…
Why Higher Agent Performance Scores Translate to Higher Profit
More than ever before, high-quality customer service is a must. With customers willing to spend more money with a company that provides quality service, and 68% of customers saying that their service rep was a major component in the quality of service they received, companies are increasingly investing in system-wide improvements to the training, technical support, and follow-up they offer their agents.
One way to do so is with the use of an Agent Behavioral Performance Score (ABPS) metric. Measuring several factors during an agent’s communication with a customer, Agent Behavioral Performance Scoring assigns an overall score that measures the display of empathy, ability to build rapport and create new relationships, and the general influence on the customer’s behavior. Read more >
Rana Gujral in the AI Mode
David Jitendranath from the Get in the Mode podcast discussed with Rana Gujral about Behavioral Signals and AI. David believes that technology works better when aligned with business strategy outcomes. They go in-depth on how the company has scaled its business, strategy and kept to their vision. They discuss the underlying technologies, deep learning, machine learning but also the broader trends in AI and why money is pouring into the specific sector, as David puts it. Listen here >
Activate This ‘Bracelet of Silence,’ and Alexa Can’t Eavesdrop
Microphones and cameras are everywhere and they’re listening. There’s a new piece of jewelry…more like armor, that you can wear and get some privacy. Two computer science professors, Mr. Zhao and Ms. Zheng, from the University of Chicago, decided to channel their frustration with this lack of privacy into something productive. With the help of an assistant professor, Pedro Lopes, they designed a piece of digital armor: a “bracelet of silence” that will jam the Echo or any other microphones in the vicinity from listening in on the wearer’s conversations. Read more >
For Retailers, Voice Recognition Is a Major Untapped Opportunity
The article discusses how people are becoming increasingly comfortable with using their voices to shop, while retailers are still lagging when it comes to creating voice experiences for their customers. The article discusses theater ticket purchasing via voice and examines how many steps the whole process takes. It’s promising that there are companies like Atom Tickets working on creating a frictionless buying experience. It’s worth reading how they go about it and what they advise retailers. Read here >
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