As smartwatch and smartphone commerce heats up, MindMeld teams with Fetch to give everyone their own AI-powered personal buying assistant.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ – MindMeld, the first platform for building advanced voice-driven applications, and Fetch, a mobile commerce company, today announced the industry’s first AI-powered shopping concierge. To download the Fetch app, one of the “Best New Apps,” go to the App Store or Google Play.
This represents an important tech milestone as consumers today spend more than 60% of their time online using mobile devices and wearables, yet fewer than 10% of all purchases are made from these devices. The reason for this is clear: shopping on a smartphone or smartwatch can be a tedious and painful process. MindMeld and Fetch have teamed up to solve this problem by creating the industry’s first mobile shopping concierge powered by MindMeld’s advanced AI.
“Fetch is the leading personal buying assistant for mobile devices and wearables, and MindMeld is the most advanced artificial intelligence platform for understanding spoken and natural language requests,” said Tom Hadfield, chief executive officer of Fetch. “It makes perfect sense that we would combine the capabilities of both platforms to streamline our personal concierge service using MindMeld’s advanced AI.”
“Just a few years ago, building the application envisioned by Fetch was simply not possible with the available technology,” said Tim Tuttle, chief executive officer and founder of Expect Labs, the company behind MindMeld. “With the recent advances in AI and machine learning, a new generation of tools is emerging which can accurately understand voice and natural language requests in order to deliver a higher level of customer service with unprecedented efficiency.”
How It Works
Using the Fetch app for the Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad or Android, a user can ask for anything with a simple text message or voice command. For example, a user could say, “Book me on the first flight to Portland on Sunday morning.” At this point, MindMeld’s advanced AI platform analyzes the spoken request, automatically retrieves possible flights and dispatches the results to the right member of Fetch’s expert team of personal shopping concierges. Fetch’s concierge will then select the best option and send it back to the user for final confirmation before booking.
Trend: Personal Buying Assistant Services
Starting in early 2015, personal buying assistant services have begun to explode including record numbers of users. Fetch sees tens of thousands of new user signups every month. As this market heats up, advanced AI is critical to intelligently triage user requests and automate repetitive tasks. By complementing human expertise with advanced machine learning, MindMeld enables Fetch to quickly scale to support millions of user requests every month while maintaining exceptional customer service.
The Importance of Intelligent Voice in Apps
Since 2011, MindMeld has pioneered the development of technology to power a new generation of voice-driven applications. Over 1,400 companies use MindMeld to power next-generation, voice-driven experiences that enable users to quickly find and navigate information in a range of applications. MindMeld’s customers and investors include some of largest technology companies in the industry including Google, Samsung, Intel, Telefonica, Liberty Global, IDG as well as some of the largest automobile manufacturers and government agencies.
About Fetch
Fetch is a mobile commerce company founded in 2013 by Tom Hadfield. The Fetch personal buying assistant, available for iOS and Android, makes buying as easy as describing the product you want. In April 2014, the company raised $2.3 million from seed investors including Kapor Capital, Black Green Capital, Tamarisc, Cane Investments, Beechwood Capital, Thatchstone, Ryerson Futures, Tom Rutledge, RP Eddy, Michael Foster and Dariush Maanavi. For more information about Fetch or to download the app, visit buywithfetch.com.
About MindMeld
MindMeld, created by Expect Labs, is the first technology platform that enables companies to build intelligent voice interfaces for any application or device. Over 1400 companies use this service to power next-generation, voice-driven experiences that enable users to quickly find and navigate information in a range of applications. MindMeld has been widely recognized as a leader in the field of voice-driven computing and was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the “100 Brilliant Companies” of 2015 and by MIT Technology Review as one of the world’s “50 Smartest Companies” of 2014. More information about MindMeld is available at mindmeld.com.
Cristina Dunning
Sparkpr for Expect Labs
[email protected]
