The Future of Public Speaking: How Technology Will Give People the Confidence They Need to Succeed in the Workplace
In this installment of Prototype Capital’s “Future Of” blog series, we speak to Danish Dhamani, Co-Founder and CEO of Orai, a Prototype Capital portfolio company in the corporate training space.
We asked Danish a series of open-ended questions about unmet needs in his industry and where he believes the industry is headed.
1) Currently, what are the most pressing public speaking problems that most people face?
There are so many different types of problems related to public speaking that it’s important to segment them by use case in order to really understand the gravity of the situation. If you’re talking about a first grader who has to do a show-n-tell for the first time in their English class, maybe they have a fear of speaking in front of other students. That was me. When I was in second grade, I moved from Pakistan to Tanzania, and was asked to stand up and introduce myself, which was very very scary.
Now think about an engineer, working at a Fortune 500, or any other corporation. They might be nervous when asked to give product updates or explain a technical workflow to their VP.
So it really depends on who the end user is. Orai, we are focusing on workplace communication; the day to day interactions that are either scheduled or happen spontaneously. Orai can help you sound more confident in presentations and meetings, but also when you have to give an off-the-cuff update.
2) Why do you think technology is the best approach to tackle these problems?
In workplaces, the most common solution is presentation coaching that is limited to senior managers or higher. Given that 1-on-1 coaching or a classroom based training is time consuming and usually expensive, it’s really no surprise that it’s reserved mostly for upper management. But we think that by using technology it should be possible for anyone at the workplace to get better at presentation skills, and thereby become more confident.
Technology is the best way to allow this training to scale throughout the organization. And so at Orai, we’re leveraging computer vision, voice AI, and natural language processing to bring the best of the 1-on-1 coaching experience to anyone inside an organization.
3) What are the 3 most significant trends impacting the growth of your space?
First, Microsoft recently announced that they’re rolling out an AI speech coach in PowerPoint. We view this as strong validation that there’s a big need for solutions like ours. With Microsoft entering the space, we believe it’s going to become more routine for everyone to have a coach that’s giving feedback on their presentation skills.
Second, we are seeing deep advancements in machine learning, NLPand computer vision. These have enabled us to deliver and deploy coaching at scale, making presentation skills feedback, really rich and actionable.
Third, enterprises are investing more and more in personal and professional development for their employees and are looking at technology solutions to make this cost-effective. As jobs become more competitive, soft skills like oral communication will be a significant differentiator for employees and can ultimately make them more productive for their employers.
4) In 5 years, what does technology-enabled public speaking look like?
I see it becoming part of our daily workflow. We’re already seeing the general public becoming comfortable having voice assistants like Alexa in their homes. Perhaps, voice assistants will get to a point where they are always listening and giving us tips on how we can sound more effective or be more productive.
Many thanks to Danish for spending some time and enlightening us about the future of public speaking.
Cheers to the future,
Team Prototype Capital
