The Blutag team attended Project Voice 2022, billed as the "The #1 event for voice in America", last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was a valuable industry event for entrepreneurs and organizations looking to drive business for voice tech, retail tech, voice commerce and conversational AI in products and services.
Over the course of four days, there was a wide range of learning sessions, speaker presentations, networking events and conference fun for attendees. Here are a few of the key takeaways we found significant:
- New Uses for Voice Technology - One of the key takeaways of the event showed how voice recognition technology is now being incorporated into a greater range of uses. No longer just about a single speaker device, voice technology is now headed into multimodal experiences, in your cars, in your workspaces, in entertainment venues and other places in which the technology is around you.
- Edge Computing - Another interesting takeaway was the high value placed on edge computing. This refers to the applications, services, and processing utilized and brought closer to end users, rather than from a central data center. For example, vendor talk revolves around moving computing power closer to voice-activated physical devices in your home (lights, speakers, A/C units) that may not necessarily need to communicate with cloud servers. Moving the processing power closer to the ‘edge’ of the voice devices helps companies in the industry reduce data volumes already stored in the cloud, saving time and money. Some of the larger voice platforms, like Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, and Google Assistant, have already used edge technology to deliver solutions.
- Growth of the Voice Commerce Industry - Another encouraging development found at Project Voice 2022 was the understanding that voice technology and voice commerce are reaching mass acceptance across consumer and business levels. In the short span of three years, companies have moved from marketing ‘a new technology’ to one that has grown leaps and bounds with business and consumer uses. Those in the industry are starting to see ROI, and many major corporate names are coming into the voice commerce industry.
- Where is Voice Headed? Our team participated in discussions with other vendors and industry observers, noting the rise in voice technology in usage and functionality. It’s clear that the general public now understands the ‘why’ of voice commerce and voice technology. But now come the crucial parts. How will this technology evolve? What is the next direction? Who is going to lead the charge? How fast will we get there? These were the kinds of conversations we were involved in at Project Voice.
- Key points from Blutag presentation: Blutag’s co-founder and CEO, Shilp Agarwal, delivered a presentation on "Proving The Value: Getting Big Brands To Buy In To Voice/AI". The presentation covered these areas:
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- There’s a direct correlation between how many times a customer hears a brand’s name and how much money they spend with that brand
- Whenever a new technology is introduced, it goes through an adoption curve. During the early days it's more often an emotional decision for the brand to embrace it. Early adopter brands accept new technologies because they are naturally innovative.
- Brands won’t experiment with new technology solely from an emotional place, they also need proven data on how it will help their brand. Voice is at a stage where it delivers ROI and brands are noticing.
Chattanooga’s Mayor Tim Kelly opened the conference, and was interviewed by local TV news for what tech shows like Project Voice 2002 means for smaller cities like Chattanooga.
