Telepathic Computing + Wholefoods Chatbot Case Study

Technology is only useful when we can use it. For millions of people around the world, computers today can be incomprehensible and stressful, putting them out of reach, and leaving them “digitally excluded”. The promise of conversational AI is making technology more accessible: saying what you want in your own words, with all the vagueness and contradictions that come with it.

Looking ahead, is voice computing the ultimate interface we want? For some today, even spoken words are an obstacle, and research this week from the University of California shows promising progress towards reading words you’re trying to say directly from your brain. Some say “decoding articulatory kinematic features from continuous neural activity in the ventral sensorimotor cortex, superior temporal and inferior frontal gyrus”. I like to think of it as “telepathy”. But while promising, it’s basic research, requiring brain implants, so it could well be 10 or more years before this turns into something everyday.

Still, pretty exciting.

Also this week:

• 💬Chatbot case studies: some numbers on some of the world’s most popular Facebook chatbots (Dominos, Wholefoods, and others)
• 📞Evidence of the demise of the phone call continues with smart speaker calls
• 🗣Brands on voice: it’s still very early days
• They store your customers’ voice recordings: a key difference between traditional software and smart speakers
• 🛠Troubleshooting: progress on a complex and largely untapped use case

Old Problems, New Problems

Scientists create speech from brain signals
“With continued progress,” wrote Chethan Pandarinath and Yahia H. Ali, biomedical engineers at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology, “we can hope that individuals with speech impairments will regain the ability to freely speak their minds and reconnect with the world around them.”
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Smarter Conversations

Add deep logic to your chatbot
Troubleshooting is a space that’s largely untapped in the world of conversational AI. Martin Lambert at eXvisory continues to progress realising his vision of how to solve this structured knowledge problem with modern day techniques.
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Leading the Pack

Your voice is being recorded!
What is not often considered when looking at smart speakers is that a) your customer’s voice is recorded and stored on the platform (at least for a while) and b) none of them offer access to this voice data; you only get a textual interpretation. This has important security considerations that need to be weighed against corporate governance.
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Learn from the Pros

Voice searches need more trusted sources
Smart speaker computing is a bit of a mess right now. Each platform is a walled garden and none of them really have good strategies yet for how to build brands. This is a good update on the state of play with voice search. It’s US-only, but that’s a decent leading indicator, for the West at least.
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12 interesting chatbots
In this post, ManyChat talks about the best chatbot examples from Whole Foods to Dominos Pizza, actionable insights you can take from them, and how to create your own today.
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Alexa, call Audible
This week, Audible, Amazon’s audio book company, introduced a feature that allows US owners of Amazon Echo devices to call Audible’s live customer service line.
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