Designed to help organizations unlock the power of machine learning, natural language processing, continuous authentication and intelligent assistance, Opus Research’s Conversational Commerce Conference London (8-9 May) focused on customer care and digital marketing initiatives, strategy & innovation, and business execution.

Participating speakers for Conversational Commerce Conference London included leading global brands & enterprises — Marks and Spencer, Google, Lidl UK, Missguided, Mercedes-Benz Consulting, SCC, Ocado, Royal Bank of Canada, KPN, Amazon, Kiwi.com and others — showcasing real-world implementations of Conversational Commerce across multiple vertical industries.

Sponsors included: Nuance Communications, Interactions, CX Company, Synthetix, Creative Virtual, Sabio, Jacada, DisruptCX and OrangeBus.

Below please find featured presentations and customer case studies from Conversational Commerce Conference (InterContinental London Park Lane, 8-9 May).

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

11:00 AM- 12:30 PM
Pre-Conference Beginner’s Seminar: Getting Started with Bots and Intelligent Assistants
Designed for enterprise customers and those looking to implement intelligent assistant solutions. Intelligent assistance and bots are redefining what is possible in self managed customer journeys. Learn the core technologies and how to get started in opening up entirely new possibilities for real time customer engagement.
Speakers:
Martin Hill-Wilson, Founder, Brainfood Consulting
Scott Barker, Head of Customer Service, Missguided

1:00PM – 1:10PM
Welcome: Conversational Commerce Conference London 2018
Hosted by Opus Research, C3 London will go beyond the AI hype to define specific ways leading enterprises and brands are introducing Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Conversational Marketing and Continuous Authentication into customer engagement and digital self-service strategies that incorporate bots, virtual agents, digital employees and intelligent assistants.
Speakers:
Dan Miller, Lead Analyst & Founder, Opus Research
Derek Top, Director of Research, Opus Research
Ravin Sanjith, Program Director, Intelligent Authentication, Opus Research
Mitch Lieberman, Program Director, Conversational Intelligence, Opus Research

1:10PM – 1:45PM
Keynote: What Happens When The Customer Has Her Own Intelligent Assistant?
Nearly all the intelligent assistants our industry has been talking about work for companies. But the day is coming when we’ll have personal intelligent assistants that work for each of us as independent human beings — and are not supplied as personal services by Amazon, Apple, Google or other companies. What will these personal assistants do for us that corporate ones can’t? Doc Searls has some answers, which he’s ready to share with us for the first time.
Speaker: Doc Searls, Author, “The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge”

1:45PM – 2:15PM
Case Study: Amazon Alexa and Ocado
Voice experiences have transformed the way that customers interact with the world around them. Alexa is providing new ways for your company to address these new expectations. UK online supermarket brand Ocado showcases an app for Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, enabling users to add groceries to their shopping list by voice.
Speakers:
Max Amordeluso, EU Lead Evangelist, Amazon Alexa
David Sharp, Head of Technology 10x, Ocado
View Presentation

2:15PM – 2:45PM
Case Study: Kiwi.com, Online Travel Agency
Czech online travel agency Kiwi.com has developed a unique “virtual interlining” technology enabling the company to sell comprehensive flight itineraries. In this presentation, Kiwi.com will discuss how Intelligent Virtual Assistant technology, provided by Interactions, has addressed the challenges of exponential growth.
Speaker:
Eliska Dockalova, Head of Task Force / Complaints Operations Manager, Kiwi.com
View Presentation

3:15PM – 4:00PM
Panel: Brands, Bots, and Conversational Commerce
As Metabots (Amazon Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, Bixby) continue to proliferate, people will use their own words to take command of their personal AI. A “voice-first” paradigm is fundamentally changing the relationship between how businesses interact with customers and unhooking the direct link between brands and consumers.
Speakers:
Ron Croen, Partner, You & Mr. Jones
Philippe Vinci, CEO, Voxygen
Dan Whaley, AI Consultant, Orange Bus
Stephen Mailey, Senior Interaction Designer, Google
Dan Miller, Lead Analyst & Founder, Opus Research

4:00PM – 4:30PM
Panel: Demystifying AI – Enterprise Strategies for Digital Self-Service
For customer care professionals who are defining conversational commerce, it’s important to parse out the meaningful components of “Artificial Intelligence,” which sometimes describes a set of technologies that amount to overkill for customer care. This session brings together experienced, recognized experts to provide a real-world view of how machine learning, knowledge management and predictive analytics fit into the future of intelligent assistance.
Speakers:
Dirk Jan Dokman, CEO, CX Company
Rachel Freeman, Operations Director, Creative Virtual
Merijn te Booij, Chief Marketing Officer, Genesys
Derek Top, Director of Research, Opus Research

4:30PM – 5:00PM
Featured Case Study: Lidl UK
UK grocery chain Lidl has launched a fully-automated Messenger chatbot to help customers select the best wine for their meal. Hear what it took to get the chatbot strategy complete in just 12 weeks, how to reach key customers using NLU technology, and the lessons learned in creating a meaningful customer experience.
Speaker:
Alex Murray, Digital Director, Lidl UK
View Presentation

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

9:00AM – 9:30AM
Featured Keynote: Big Picture “Leveraging AI for Intelligent Customer Engagement”
Conversational, predictive and human-assisted AI is playing a central role in contact center and digital transformation advances. Hear real-world examples of successful uses of AI, globally-deployed intelligent assistants and live chat with business results achieved.
Speaker:
George Skaff, VP, Worldwide Marketing, Enterprise Division, Nuance
View Presentation

9:30AM – 10:00AM
Keynote Case Study: Marks and Spencer
Leading UK retailer Marks and Spencer has deployed an intelligent virtual assistant to support their digital customer engagement strategy. In this presentation, hear how the retailer identified the need for an intelligent assistant and developed a successful strategy for implementation.
Speaker:
Ian Mahoney, Head of Technology – Contact Centres & Telephony, Marks and Spencer
View Presentation

10:00AM – 10:30AM
Personalisation, Privacy and Security – All of the Above, Please!
Aside from the need to satisfy regulatory requirements, such as the imminent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this session looks beyond compliance to explore whether it is possible to provide individuals with personalised, private or anonymised secure services, by embracing emerging technologies in digital ID’s, blockchain (LT/SLT), self-sovereign identity and continuous authentication can boost acceptance and adoption of Intelligent Assistants.
Speakers:
Karl Roberts, Director of Digital Innovation & Strategy, DisruptCX
Jonathan Armstrong, Partner, Cordery
Joyce Searls, Partner, The Searls Group
Ravin Sanjith, Program Director, Intelligent Authentication, Opus Research

10:45AM – 11:15AM
Featured Case Study: Mercedes-Benz Consulting
Main Room Hear how one of the world’s largest automotive companies is utilizing digital labor to transform the customer experience in the era of AI. Mercedes-Benz Consulting is developing a Cognitive Assistant to help manage customer communication channels and optimize business processes.Assistants.
Speaker:
Alex Dogariu, Manager & AI Lead, Mercedes-Benz Consulting
View Presentation

10:45AM – 12:15PM
Breakout: Intelligent Authentication
“DeepDive: Seamless Secure Experience Through “4th Factor” Continuous Authentication”
Led by experts, this session discusses the evolution from single, enterprise-based authentication mechanisms to continuous, distributed ID&V activities across industries. Learn how multi-modal, multi-factor authentication systems improve the growth and scalability of intelligent assistance.
Speakers:
Sarosh Shahbuddin, Product Marketing Manager, Pindrop
Ravin Sanjith, Program Director, Intelligent Authentication, Opus Research
Ayelet Biger-Levin, Senior Consultant, Identity Product Marketing, RSA

11:15AM – 11:45AM
Panel: Building the Business Case for Intelligent Assistants & Chatbots
The onslaught of thousands of bots, virtual agents and enterprise intelligent assistants is a source of stress for customer experience, marketing, contact center and IT professionals. A panel will share the wisdom in building a business case and then executing a strategic plan to deploy intelligent assistants.
Speakers:
Keren Dobkovsky Abrahami, Product Manager, Jacada
Peter McKean, CEO, Synthetix
David Naylor, Founder, Humanotics
Martin Hill-Wilson, Founder, Brainfood Consulting

11:45AM – 12:15PM
Case Study: SCC
SCC, Europe’s largest independent IT services business, has launched an intelligent human-like chatbot that provides natural language based responses, manages inbound requests from real customers, and supports broader business service areas, including product information, marketing, support and sales.
Speaker:
Ian Sherratt, Chief Innovation Officer, Specialist Computer Centers (SCC)
View Presentation

1:30PM – 2:00PM
Case Study: Royal Bank of Canada
How an AI-powered conversational interface became a new convenient service and increased customer satisfaction for Canada’s largest bank. The RBC Conversational Customer Care Virtual Assistant, designed by Omilia, was designed to boost automation, minimize advisor-to-advisor transfers, and improve customer satisfaction with conversational dialogues.
Speaker:
David Kapauan, Distinguished Architect, Contact Center Technology, Royal Bank of Canada

1:30PM – 3:15PM
Breakout:Conversational Design
DeepDive: Conversational Design Basics and Beyond
Conversation design builds natural language behaviors into voice and multimodal interactions. This workshop will introduce you to the principles, best practices, and process of conversation design, and provide concrete steps for creating your own successful, compelling voice-driven interactions.
Speakers:
Dan Whaley, AI Consultant, Orange Bus
Margaret Urban, VUI Designer, Google
Stephen Mailey, Senior Interaction Designer, Google

2:00PM – 2:30PM
How Conversational Marketing Builds Business Value
Conversational marketing enables consumers to discover and buy products and services thanks to automated chatbots and intelligent assistants. Will conversational marketing fundamentally disrupt traditional marketing channels in the next few years?
Speakers:
Greg Pal, Chief Business Officer, Automat
Isabel Perry, Head of Technology, Byte London
Derek Top, Director of Research, Opus Research

2:30PM – 3:00PM
Case Study: KPN
KPN, the largest Dutch provider of telecom & Internet services to consumers and businesses, is undergoing a significant digital transformation project utilizing advanced digital self-service and intelligent assistance. Martijn Franssen, KPN’s senior director of digital customer support, will present how the company’s intelligent self-service platform supports customer services and drives operational efficiencies.
Speaker:
Martijn Franssen, Director, Digital Customer Service, KPN

3:30PM – 4:00PM
How Conversational Intelligence Drives Exceptional Customer Service
Conversational Intelligence helps organizations direct conversations toward optimal customer outcomes. Under the Intelligent Assistance banner, computers are there to help, rather than replace individuals. Top platform providers recognize the need to keep people in the digital commerce equation. What is the recipe for success for intelligent assistance and precise customer service?
Speakers:
Martin Schneider, Head of Corporate Strategy, SugarCRM
Niclas Staberg, Customer Success Director, Freespee
Mitch Lieberman, Program Director, Conversational Intelligence, Opus Research
View Presentation

4:00PM – 4:30PM
Case Study: Europ Assistance Italia
Europ Assistance, a global leader in providing a wide range of assistance services including travel, health and senior care services, will showcase how an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) seamlessly blends AI and human understanding to recognize complex utterances to ensure engaging, productive interactions with customers.
Speaker:
Francesco Clivio, Head of Process, Analytics & Workforce Management, Europ Assistance Italia
View Presentation

4:30PM – 5:00PM
Executive View: Future of Secure, Multi-channel Intelligent Assistance
An interactive discussion, welcoming all opinions — will intelligent assistants truly improve customer experience? What are the challenges in delivering seamless identity & verification strategies to provide secure, personalized services for customers?

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