Own The Conversation - Issue #32
Martyn Redstone
Welcome to Own The Conversation!
Own The Conversation is a weekly, manually curated newsletter with all the news in the world of Conversational AI.
From interesting articles to funding news and the latest jobs. I hope you get everything you need, and more, from this newsletter.
New Job? Conversational AI jobs at bot-jobs.com are exploding. Over 650 jobs live now.
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Cheers,
Martyn @ bot-jobs.com
Sponsors
This week’s Own The Conversation is supported by Bot Jobs:
For 20% discount on job postings on Bot Jobs, use discount code OTC20OFF when posting featured jobs - available for all Own The Conversation subscribers.
Sponsorship Opportunities
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Conversations To Own
Articles and news that might interest you.
The USDA Forest Service, the National Association of State Foresters and the Ad Council are reminding Americans everywhere of important wildfire prevention tips with new PSAs featuring a virtual Artificial Intelligence Smokey Bear assistant. In both digital and radio spots, Smokey’s AI Assistant gives answers to some of the top questions Americans have about outdoor fire safety.
The making of the D3-09 conversational character aboard Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser
Walt Disney Imagineering has released a new video offering insight into the creation of the D3-09 conversational character that is part of each cabin aboard Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.
For AI assistants to move forward, Siri and Alexa need to die
Die Siri die! You too Google Assistant, Alexa, Bixby, and any other big tech snitches out there harvesting our data. An opinion piece.
AI in the DMs: Seizing the Social Commerce Opportunity With Conversational Messaging
While there will always be a need for live support agents to respond to certain inquiries, conversational messaging can help your brand automate and scale its social commerce experience with artificial intelligence-enabled chatbots and conversation APIs.
Rylan Clark becoming Alexa voice for one day only is revealed as an April Fools' joke
It was announced on Thursday that for one day the 33-year-old, who owns over 30 devices, would be heard in place of the usual Alexa voice, answering in his own unique way.
Try out Custom Neural Voice in 5 minutes with a Lite project
Azure Cognitive Services introduces Custom Neural Voice Lite, a new feature in public preview, which enables users to clone their voice by recording just 5 minutes of speech data. This new feature makes it extremely easy for customers to create a synthetic voice that sounds natural.
University of Illinois Uses AI Chatbot to Grow Student Recruitment for Online MBA Program
The University of Illinois’s Gies College of Business is employing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot to help prospective students gain information about its online MBA program.
Digital Babel Fish: The holy grail of Conversational AI
Universal Speech Translator was a dominant theme in the Meta’s Inside the Lab event on February 23.
Chatbots vs. Humans: Which One Should You Choose And Why
Customer service has always been important, but as the economy becomes more competitive, it is even more important that clients have a smooth interaction with your company. That’s the only way to retain customers and continue to grow in this economic climate.
Funding and Deals
Soprano Design Acquires AI, Chatbot, and RPA Platform ubisend
Today, ubisend, a leader in conversational AI solutions for business, announced it has been acquired by Soprano Design, a global leader in CPaaS and communications technology headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Microsoft’s $19.7B Nuance deal is finally final, nearly a year after it was announced - GeekWire
Microsoft completed its $19.7 billion acquisition of voice technology company Nuance Communications on Friday morning, two days after clearing their final regulatory hurdle.
Level AI Raises $20M in Series B Funding
Level AI, a Mountain View, CA-based AI-driven provider of an AI driven customer service and experience technology platform, raised $20M in Series B funding
Gideon Taylor Consulting, LLC and IntraSee, Inc. announced today that Gideon Taylor has acquired IntraSee, an enterprise UX and conversational AI pioneer.
Mozilla Common Voice announces $400K in grants for Kiswahili voice tech projects in East Africa
Mozilla Common Voice, an open-source initiative that aims to make voice technology more inclusive has announced $400,000 in grants for voice technologies that leverage its open-source Kiswahili data set. The initiative will support people and projects across East Africa who are using voice technology to unlock social and economic opportunities.
Digital voice assistant leverages Xtime online scheduling tool to handle and appoint inbound service calls and improve the consumer experience
Latest Jobs from Bot Jobs
See more jobs at Bot Jobs.
Jobs opportunities at Heyday by Hootsuite - Bot Jobs
It would be remiss of me to not point out that Heyday is hiring. And in big volumes this year. So, browse Conversational AI job opportunities at Heyday by Hootsuite and see if anything fits.
EVENTS & IRL MEETUPS
Online Networking Events About Conversational AI & Chatbots! Walk around in the virtual conference room and meet inspiring people!
Chatbots, AI & VOICE Conference 2022 @Metaverse
Join us in the Metaverse and network with the top industry experts from companies like Google, Amazon, Walmart.
Advantest VOICE – Advantest Developer Conference
Each year, the VOICE Developer Conference unites semiconductor test professionals representing the world’s leading integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries, fabless semiconductor companies and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers to exchange information about the latest technology advancements, express new ideas, share best practices and network with one another.
4th World Chatbots Summit | Luxatia International
Join us and global executives as we return for our 4th Annual World Chatbots Summit in Berlin, Germany on May 19th and 20th. This edition will focus on expanding the range of chatbot’s internal and external use cases, adding a human touch into NLP technology and overcoming ethical and security issues.
Conversational AI Summit | RE•WORK
Discover advances in NLP, and how application can help create digital assistants, chatbots and conversational interfaces to improve customer experience & increase engagement
PEVoC14 Conference will take place live on 24-27 August 2022
The 14th Pan-European Voice Conference has been postponed and will take place on 24-27 August 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. The conference will take place in the new building of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Closing notes
So, anybody who may have noticed a little announcement from me earlier this week will know that I have joined Heyday by Hootsuite as their UK lead. It’s pretty exciting as a move - I get to talk EVEN more about Conversational AI and introduce UK retailers to some pretty useful tech. Heyday is on an aggressive hiring journey, so if you are interested in checking out roles, mainly based in our Montreal, Canada HQ, then take a look here.
I’ll still be keeping up with Bot Jobs and with this newsletter, so nothing will change. This newsletter will remain a brain dump of the articles, content, events etc. that I find interesting every week.
I’m hoping that this newsletter keeps building and improving with every issue. Let me know your thoughts, feedback and ideas of what you want to see by DM on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or even TikTok (not that I have worked that one out yet!).
Have a great week ahead!
Martyn, Founder @ bot-jobs.com
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