IBM and Salesforce have a partnership that defines how Salesforce’s Einstein, the CRM specialist’s inchoate Intelligent Assistant, will work with IBM’s Watson.
Conversational Intelligence
Amazon Developing Speaker Recognition Features for Alexa and Echo
News spread this week, thanks to a report from Time, that Amazon is working on a new feature that would give Alexa the ability to recognize an individual’s voice.
DARPA’s Latest Take on AI Illuminates the Course of Intelligent Assistance
The U.S. Defense Department’s advanced research agency unveils what it regards as three waves of artificial intelligence (AI). Interestingly, the insights map well to technical trends in the world of intelligent assistants.
Opus Research Report: “Digital Virtual Assistants”
In this report, Opus Research Lead Analyst & Founder Dan Miller outlines key strategies for enterprises to deploy text-based virtual digital agents that reach consumers on their preferred channels, serve rich content, and provide a more comprehensive customer care experience.
Santander Unveils Voice Payment Technology for Mobile Banking App
Santander releases an updated SmartBank app becoming the first UK banking firm to deploy voice payment technology to enable customers to make transfers using voice and taking steps to deliver a future banking experience.
Chatbots on Messaging Platforms: Ready to Meet the Customer Service Challenge?
In highlighting chatbots from four big-name brands — Kia Motors, Marriott Rewards, KLM, and Expedia — Amy Stapleton concludes that messaging bots are currently best suited for promoting brand awareness and loyalty rather than delivering comprehensive customer service.
MindMeld Report Clears Confusion about Approaches to Intelligent Assistance
Long-time natural language understanding specialist MindMeld releases a “Conversational AI Playbook” defining four distinctly different technical approaches for building apps that utilize a conversational UI.
Opus Research Report: Decision Makers’ Guide to Enterprise Intelligent Assistants
Opus Research presents a comprehensive assessment of the current Intelligent Assistant (IA) and bot solution provider landscape with special focus on 28 vendors offering “enterprise-grade” solutions, accounting for over 2,700 deployments of intelligent assistants among 1,200 customers.
“Voice-First” Intelligent Assistance: A Closer Look
We’re awash with evidence of activity surrounding chatbots and conversational commerce, but as John Wooden said, “Never mistake activity for achievement”.
H&R Block and Raymond James Offer Automated Personal Advisors for Financial Management
By combining natural language understanding with deep, but narrowly-focused, domain expertise, intelligent assistant “personal advisors” are helping people file taxes and becoming “robo-advisors” for financial guidance.