Many weren’t predicting the swift rise of voice, but we’re here: Nearly every week, a new major product or company adopts voice-driven features. Multiple conferences are springing up, dedicated to the nascent but populous space of intelligent virtual assistants. Bing says one in four searches is activated by voice. According to Nuance, “in the past year…smart TV customers using their voices instead of remotes climbed by 230%, and the number of transactions has grown by over 300%.” Apple – whose Siri receives over a billion queries per week – was gently chided by at least two major headlines yesterday for not having implemented voice search in its television yet.
Building a high-accuracy, voice-activated natural language system from scratch takes years of development. Fortunately for companies playing catch-up, MindMeld has already put in the time. Our resulting voice-enablement platform can power any application or device in a matter of days, delivering high-accuracy results custom-tailored to any knowledge domain.
So, how do you know if voice is the right solution for your technology? A year ago, Expect Labs founder/CEO Tim Tuttle made this video, which holds as true now as it did then:
Companies should seriously consider voice if:
1) People commonly use your app on devices that either have a painful typing experience or lack keyboards entirely.
2) People regularly use your app when their hands/vision are occupied (e.g. while driving, walking, or cooking).
3) Your users need to navigate a large content collection, such as an extensive product catalog.
4) Your users want to accomplish tasks that require multiple steps (e.g. looking for Marriott hotels near Central Park that are inexpensive and available Saturday through Monday).
