Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] One of the things that's unique about Vocinity is that we build private data models. 0:08 And so unlike some of our larger competitors who share that information with researchers and anybody who will buy it, we keep all of that data private and secure on our own network. 0:27 [upbeat music] Welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:42 My next guest has more than 25 years of management, product development, and innovation leadership success across five ventures, including three exits. 0:52 He has a unique ability to leverage emerging technology such as natural language processing, machine learning, WebRTC to leverage telco grade real-time cloud-based communication solutions. 1:06 He has successfully solved major internet and telecom technical dilemmas and done the impossible using cutting-edge resources and equipment. Please welcome Nathan Stratton, founder and CTO of Vocinity. 1:19 Nathan, welcome to the show. Well, thank you, Peggy. It's nice to be here. So Nathan, we have a lot to talk about today because there's a lot going on in conversational voice agents. 1:29 So I'd love to talk and understand, I guess, is what I'd love to say here is what has changed right now that's en- enabled this robust, cost-effective market that's happened so much? 1:42 'Cause it's really an exciting time to be in the business. Sure. It really is. Uh, there's been several trends that have happened over the last five years or so. 1:51 Uh, some of them have to do with speech-to-text technology, of accurately being able to understand what is being said. 1:58 Uh, some of them have to do with text-to-speech, the other side of the equation, of how do you, uh, get a machine to communicate back to you, and then natural language processing, of having, you know, machine learning, uh, cores using, uh, things like graphics cards, uh, to be able to process all of that data, uh, to be able to give you a answer, uh, and related to what you specified. 2:23 You know, when you talk to a voice agent, you want them to really understand you. 2:27 And when we think about the big guys out there, Google, and IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, everybody wants to engage with them like they're their best friends, you know? Sure. 2:35 So what makes what you're doing, you know, at Vocinity different? Because right now when we engage in these, we, we think they're great. We think that... And, you know, sometimes they're not great. 2:45 They're doing all kinds of crazy things, you know, having parties when you're not home. [laughs] Sure. But what is what you're doing different to compete with the big boys out there? Sure. 2:53 So we compete, uh, using, uh, technology that focuses on kind of unique use cases. So as an example, uh, we support video, uh, and video avatars, uh, something that none of the big boys are doing today. 3:08 On the telephony side, instead of just simply inbound calls, we support outbound calls and things like transfers and attended transfers, uh, DTMF and, and all of those functionality. 3:20 And we have a service creation environment like some of the big boys do, uh, but we also have vendor creation where we will build agents for our customers, and that is something that works well for people who, uh, are just getting started in the space. 3:35 So DTMF meaning? Uh, dual-tone multi-frequency. It, it's basically the touch tone buttons on your phone. So when people are looking at that, why does that matter? So for the idea of what they're doing. 3:47 I mean, 'cause right now we don't really wanna touch a lot of surfaces, right? People are all freaked out with COVID. Is that gonna change? 3:54 Are we really gonna use more voice assistance in the way we want, or is that DTMF c- still gonna have a place when we think about going forward in the future? That's a great question. 4:03 And I believe that, you know, DTMF itself is certainly being faded away. 4:08 Um, however, there are still legacy systems that support it, and it's important that a conversational agent is able to interface with those legacy systems. 4:18 And, uh, to do that, unfortunately, some da- times the only way to do that is with DTMF. 4:24 So when we look at how the market's changing, when we look at what is exciting about it, are there some really good examples that you can give us that you say, "Here's where we think the market's headed. 4:35 Here's where it is today"? Because I think there has to be some changes, especially what we've seen, uh, when we look at how things have exponentially changed. We're, we're seeing technology rapidly changing. 4:46 If you would've asked us two years where chatbots or conversational agents... And, and we're gonna talk about what the difference is that because I think that's a big discussion. Sure. 4:56 How it's evolved, and I think it's really grown very quickly, faster than I think you might have even thought, or maybe you were in it and said- Sure... "No, I knew it." 5:05 But, you know, th- we've embraced it i, uh, amazingly quick. We certainly have. Uh, and there's been things like COVID, uh, that have, uh, caused that to speed up even, uh, faster than its, uh, increased pace anyway. 5:21 Uh, and give you a good example, uh, we are working with a large, uh, retail, uh, s- big box chain, uh, and, uh, they no longer, uh, can have, uh, sales agents selling a product in their store. 5:36 Uh, they want just customers coming into the store, so the third-party agents that sell on behalf of a vendor are n- essentially not allowed in. 5:45 And so we're using our technology through a video and audio totem experience to be able to sell a particular product. 5:54 A customer can ask questions about the product, have demos, see videos, uh, and, uh, really do the job that's done by a traditional sales agent, uh, without using a human. 6:05 So is that video avatar, that agent now, is it gonna help say, "Hey, I think that dress isn't really good for you. I think you should go with this color"? Are we seeing all of that? 6:13 I mean, that's really kinda creepy, but very cool. Is that where we're gonna go?I, I think that, uh, as people's appetites change, uh, i- we certainly are seeing more and more acceptance of devices in homes. 6:27 Uh, what we're focusing on, uh, are devices that communicate primarily with audio, and the video avatar is just something that you can watch versus using a camera to detect and, uh, actually send, uh, pictures of the, of the customer somewhere. 6:43 Um, but I think as time goes on, uh, certainly you're gonna see that. Uh, using neural nets, uh, to, uh, compare outfits is, is very doable today, um, if we can get over the privacy issues. 6:56 And, and that's a very important question. We have a lot of security. We are connected to everything. 7:02 How do you get consumers past that point of being nervous that we're using all these conversational AIs in our home and wherever, and thinking that Big Brother's not listening to every single thing that's going on around them, and go, "I don't really like it," because we're getting more comfortable, but yet as we get them into every room and every part of the house, and go, you know, they're listening to almost everything that goes on, and some things you don't want to be heard. 7:26 Sure. Uh, and, and that's a good point. And one of the things that's unique about Vocinity, uh, is that we build private data models. 7:34 And so unlike some of our larger competitors who, uh, share that information with researchers and, and, uh, anybody who will buy it, uh, we keep all of that data private, uh, and secure, uh, on our own network. 7:50 Uh, and I think that's something that is important to people, and I think that time will tell, but I think customers are starting to demand, uh, not only access to their own personal information, uh, but also, uh, guarantees that that will be kept safe and secure. 8:06 So are we really talking about this as being a solution for the consumer use, or are we really talking about this as something you're gonna see more drive the enterprise? 8:15 Uh, so, you know, today Vocinity's customers are large enterprise, large corporations, uh, and they are using it, uh, to talk with consumers. 8:27 Um, but, you know, as, uh, the technology continues to, uh, meet different use cases inside the enterprise, I think we're gonna see a lot of growth there as well, um, as we see, uh, systems in, in companies like Salesforce and Microsoft, uh, add that technology to some of their existing products and use cases. 8:48 It was interesting because one of the things that was coming to mind is you said you don't need a sales agent. 8:52 I was thinking enterprises could use this as they're doing things on, on the lines and saying you can do things to be able to kind of direct things where you don't necessarily want individuals to go. 9:05 You don't want so many 'cause you have to social distance. I could see a lot, I was imagining a lot of things. 9:10 Are you thinking that same way as we, because of COVID, and as companies start coming back and really ramping up again? Are you in- seeing some of this in your mind? 9:18 Or, or are you already thinking that or working with companies that way? 9:22 W- we do, and I, I think that that trend is, is unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your view, uh, going to continue for, uh, at least, uh, some significant time to come. 9:32 Um, you know, this is very much the new normal. 9:36 Um, we're, we're finding a acceptance though of using this technology, uh, particularly in healthcare as- applications, where sometimes a customer, uh, is more, uh, comfortable talking to a machine than talking to a person about particular issues if they know that data's gonna be private. 9:55 So what's happened, the more we're being at home, the more we're social distant, people are becoming more comfortable with that. 10:02 So I could see this now more these conversational agents, you know, integrating with existing mobile applications, and people becoming where we've been-- we haven't liked being home. 10:14 W- it's becoming more comfortable with that, with more apps. Or is that what you're indicating a little bit? Uh, I, I think so. 10:20 And, and one of the other differentiators of Vocinity compared to some of the, uh, other companies that we've mentioned, uh, is that we do have direct mobile application support. 10:31 And so adding our SDK into existing mobile applications, whether that's a application to order fast food or whether that's an application to, uh, check on your insurance policy, uh, these types of use cases, uh, from home, from your mobile app, uh, using voice are gonna become more common. 10:51 Uh, you know, you can say words and convey meaning, uh, much faster than you can type them, and I think that that is, uh, you know, something that's makes those applications very compelling. 11:04 So a few years ago when we'd see people talking to their phones or whatever and we thought they were talking to themselves, we're gonna see more and more people, you know, walking into walls and doing things because they're looking- [laughs]... 11:15 at their mobile devices. [laughs] And they're- I think so. And that's what's gonna happen. 11:19 And, and it's gonna be crazy because we're gonna say more and more people are distracted because they're talking to their devices and their applications on their whatever that device may be. 11:28 Is that what we're, we're gonna see? Well, I think there's certainly, uh, some, some negatives that society in general has to be careful about, uh, but there's also some positives. 11:39 Um, you know, I mean, I can drive to Starbucks in the morning. By using this technology to not use text while you're driving and to... You know, there are some use cases that are very, very compelling. 11:51 Uh, but certainly society as a general, um, getting too connected to their phone, uh, you know, that's something that, uh, we'll have to, to look at. 12:01 I, I'm still puzzled by the younger generation using, you know, a delivery service, GitHub, whatever, to bring- Sure... their McDonald's to their homes. 12:10 I mean, you know, we would drive to McDonald's [laughs] in the drive-through. [laughs] Now they have McDonald's delivered. 12:15 So I mean, when you imagine this, I mean, there's so many kinds of things that now this can be used for. What in your mind, we've just got about a minute left, is your... What do you see the future bringing for this? 12:26 Really talk to me through, because I see so many creative ideas running through my mind. What's y- where do you see it going? That, that's a great question. 12:35 One of the things that we're looking at is how can we best, uh, support, uh, use cases that are focused on specific verticals, because the technology really can be used for so much. 12:48 Uh, and, you know, we're finding those verticals in healthcare, we're finding those verticals in retail, but I think there's a lot more that we'll discover and a lot more that our customers will introduce us to as well. 13:00 I tell you, Nathan Stratton, founder and C-T-O of Vocinity, thank you so much for your time today. Where can our listeners go to learn more about what you guys are doing? 13:09 A great place to go is our website, uh, www.vocinity.com, and, uh, there's some information there, and well as contact us links. All right. Okay, listeners, we're out of time for today. 13:22 Remember, we are broadcast live every Tuesday at 12:00 PM Central. Check out our website at connectedworld.com, our show website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. 13:31 But most importantly, what we want you to do is tweet at me, @connectedWmag. Okay. This is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. 13:41 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. Have an awesome week. [upbeat music]
