Voice Tech Podcast: Master AI for B2B Audio Content Marketing in 2025

Five different french audio startups explain what their companies’ missions are as they’re interviewed at the Vivatech 2021 mega-conference in Paris, France.

One french company that stood out was Cogneed, which focuses on the power of AI specifically when it comes to Inside Sales, Customer Care & Sales Development Reps, assisting them with dynamic display of relevant information, triggered by audio detection.

Then comes Storyfox, a video interview tool that companies can use to create structured interviews using templates. This could especially be beneficial for companies that are looking to hire new employees as it makes the process much quicker.

Next, we interview Playplay, an online video editing tool that allows anyone to create videos easily, as videos are the main form of content that users consume. It also has a new feature that can be used to create videos for podcasts including automated motion design and automatic subtitles.

Afterwards, we learn all about Sonup, a startup that’s based in Montpellier. It’s an innovative and reliable solution for healthcare professionals wishing to offer their patients a hearing assessment service. They explain why their solution is important for people with hearing problems.

Last but not least, we get to know Odiho, a company that provides sound to soundless advertising, such as video billboards. People can scan the QR code on the ad to watch the video with sound on their cellphones.

Listen to the full episode to get the answers to all of your burning questions!

Links from the show:

• VivaTech
• Cogneed
• Storyfox
• Playplay
• Sonup
• Odiho

Sponsors:

• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Conversation Design Institute << 25% off courses: VOICETECH25
• Rumble Studio << create your free account

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Bob Stolzberg is the founder of VoiceXP, a platform that lets you build engaging voice experiences for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung Bixby without writing a line of code. Find out how VoiceXP's super simple form based approach lets users have build multimodal voice apps with custom voices and API integrations for a wide variety of use cases.

We also learn about some of the big trends in voice, such as why now is the perfect time to set up a flash briefing, what the word on the ground in Silicon Valley is, and how all websites will soon have a voice interface. This is an energetic conversation packed with useful insights and fun demos, so don't miss it!

Links from the show:

• VoiceXP: https://VoiceXP.com
• VoiceXP on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qj9KMM
• VoiceXP on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/32iI8V3
• VoiceXP on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2CbYZhP
• Alexa comedy - Funny or die: Under a rock with Tig Natarro http://bit.ly/32c8XKz
• Book: Design how people think http://bit.ly/33fmMcN
• Book: Badass: Making Users Awesome http://bit.ly/2oP17cq

Sponsors:

• Manning books: https://www.manning.com << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• VoiceTech Paris 2019 tickets: http://bit.ly/35Mo3tv << 20% off code: VT19-VTECHPOD

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Benjamin Etienne is a data scientist at Rogervoice, a mobile app that allows deaf and hard-of-hearing people to use the telephone. Ben shares his inspirational story about how he taught himself data science and machine learning in the evenings, so he could work in a more technical role. He tells us why he's not keen on Kaggle competitions, and why getting a job in data science is the best way to master it.

Ben introduces us to the challenges faced by the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and how they can overcome them with the help of voice technology. We cover how Rogervoice works from both functional and technical standpoints, and discuss the pros and cons of using a commercial cloud-based speech API versus developing a custom in-house speech-to-text system. Ben reveals his reasoning behind his choice of machine learning models, and describes the advantages of using connectionist temporal classification (CTC).

We then discuss the state of data science today, the limitations of current models and data preprocessing techniques, and how an understanding of the underlying psychology and neurology of users can help us design more effective voice technologies.

Links from this episode:

• Rogervoice: https://www.rogervoice.com
• CTC intro: https://distill.pub/2017/ctc/
• CTC article on Medium: https://gab41.lab41.org/speech-recognition-you-down-with-ctc-8d3b558943f0
• ...more show notes on the Website : http://bit.ly/voicetechpodcast

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Jon is the leader of the Open Voice Network, an organization that seeks to create a future of AI voice that is standards-based, interoperable, accessible, and data protected. While the voice movement is growing rapidly, it is still very much in a fledgling state. This makes the task of setting up governance and standards in the space highly relevant, and one which Jon is working hard to address.

In today’s episode, we talk about why we need a network like OVN at all, and what happens if we don’t create such an organization. Jon explains why he is focusing on shopping and retail in particular. He dives into how this category of the market presents a research case that raises many of the relevant issues arising by the introduction of voice technology into a particular field.

We cover conflicts of interest and groupthink too; between users, developers, enterprises, platform companies, and thought leaders, there are clearly many voices with different vested interests in what the standards look like and who they benefit. We hear about the five main areas which the research at OVN will focus on.

Our conversation also covers some of the ethical issues raised by just how much data can be captured in a moment in which a customer's voice gets recorded, and how standardization can address the responsibility this places the company which hears it in. In the bonus questions for Pro listeners, Jon reflects on his storied career in technology, and what led him to launch the Open Voice Network.

Links from the show:

• Jon Stine
• Jon Stine on LinkedIn
• Open Voice Network
• MIT Auto-ID Lab
• Intel
• Prof. Sanjay Sarma
• Prof. Brian Subirana
• Bret Kinsella
• Open Rights Group

Sponsors:

• Manning books << 40% off all books code: PODVOICETECH19
• Voice Connected Business EU conference << 30% off code: VoiceTech30EU
• Robocopy Conversation Design Course << 50% off with this link
• Voice of the Car Summit << 30% off with VOICETECHCARL

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As voice-assistant technologies become more frequent in many different industries, questions of its influence on those industries themselves become more pertinent. Today’s guest is Krish Velkar from Ogilvy, who joins us to discuss his recent master's dissertation which explored the influence of voice assistants on the purchasing of FMCG products (fast-moving consumer goods).

In this episode, we discuss the history of voice technology and the ways people are beginning to use it more frequently in India as well as globally. Krish gets into what voice tech promises for accessibility, speaking to his grandparents’ adoption of smartphones due to the intuitiveness of voice tech as a UI. He speaks about the idea of low and high involvement purchases, and where voice purchasing is most effective.

We then get into Krish’s actual research, and he takes us through the hypotheses, methods, discoveries, and insights that can be found in his dissertation. He talks about the surveys he made regarding the buying process and the likelihood of repurchase using the Ariel detergent virtual assistant. He also discusses ways companies can optimize the voice-assisted experience, stressing the value of early brand adoption and more anthropomorphic chatbots.

We could be looking at significant developments in the FMCG retail space over the next few years, so Krish’s research couldn’t come at a better time. Tune in to hear more about it.

Links from the show:

• Krish Velkar on LinkedIn
• Krish Velkar on Twitter
• Alexa, are you a salesperson?
• Impact of Voice Assistance on a Consumer’s Purchase Decision for FMCG Products
• Ogilvy
• James Poulter
• Voice2
• University of Bath
• Marketing Week
• VR World
• King’s College
• Professor Ko de Ruyter
• Mark Ritson
• Vixen Labs
• Siri
• IBM Shoebox
• Carnegie Mellon Harpy

Sponsors:

• Voice of the Car Summit << 30% off with VOICETECHCARL
• Robocopy Train the Trainer Bootcamp << 10% off when mentioning the Voice Tech Podcast

Find us here:

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• YouTube
• Discord
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• [email protected]