Own The Conversation - Issue #46

Own The Conversation is a weekly, manually curated newsletter with all the news in the world of Conversational AI.

Well hello there!

The feedback from last week’s change of newsletter format has been overwhelmingly positive. So I think we’ll be keeping it like this for the foreseeable.

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So, without further ado, let’s move on to the Conversations to Own.

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Conversational AI Jobs

Firstly, let’s talk about Conversational AI jobs.

Check out these featured roles at The Schwarz Group (a leading international retailer with 500,000 employees worldwide in 33 different countries and over 12,900 stores).

• (Senior) IT Consultant Conversational Middleware

• (Senior) IT Consultant Conversational AI

Our friends at Emotech Ltd (powering digital avatars with the most realistic AI driven speech - from gaming to customer service) are also hiring here in London (can be remote, obviously).

• Product Manager

👉 For 50% discount on job postings on Bot Jobs, use discount code BOT50 when posting featured jobs - available for all Own The Conversation subscribers 👈

Now, onto the interesting news, articles and content of the week.

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Conversations To Own

This week’s main news for me, probably came from Alexa Live 2022, which announced a wide variety of features for Alexa skill developers and device makers.

Alexa Developers @alexadevs

Here’s the Alexa Live 2022 feature and announcement roundup for skill developers: amzn.to/3B8TnVh

July 20th 2022

6 Retweets11 Likes

So while Google is ending conversational skills on Google Home/Assistant, Amazon is definitely doubling down on skills and/or the ability to create them.

For those that create Alexa experiences, you’ll have probably seen what’s been released, but for me the following were the most important:

• The A/B Testing Tool

• Alexa Presentation Language for Audio (APLA) templates

• Skill Components

• Unified DX across Alexa Conversations and Interaction Model

Now, onto the other Conversational AI news items that have caught my eye this week:

• DALL·E Now Available in Beta → Sign up to the waiting list here

• Research shows Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant aren’t equal in providing answers to our health questions

• New “Voice on Wheels” Report Reveals the Ins and Outs of in-Car Voice Technology

• Bots Are Horrible. Alexa Is Lovely, But Limited. Conversational AI Is The Only Way To Interact With Machines.

• Microsoft’s Digital Contact Center Debuts: Nuance and Microsoft Enter the Conversational Cloud

• Intelligent Virtual Assistant Global Market To Grow At Rate Of 35% Through 2026

• Polish startup Talkie.ai raises €2.5 million

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Events to Attend: July - September

July

Conversational User Interfaces
July 26–28, 2022
Glasgow, UK

August

Ai4 2022
Aug 16–18
Las Vegas, NV

September

Conversational AI Summit
Sept 22–23, 2022
London, UK

AI Summit Silicon Valley
Sept 28–29
Santa Clara, CA

Voice of Healthcare
Sept 29, 2022
Boston, MA

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I’m currently in experimentation mode with the newsletter, having moved it this week from Sunday to Monday morning. I’m interested in seeing the difference in engagement, if any.

Let me know your thoughts, feedback and ideas about what you want to see in the newsletter, by DM on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or even TikTok

Here’s hoping you have a great week. I’ll be preparing for our two-week family summer holiday by downloading lots of cartoons (mainly for the children) and loading up my kindle before flying off the Israel and then Cyprus.

Martyn