Paul Sweeney | Head of Product at Webio
You probably know that Webio has been an advocate for Conversational AI since our inception. We believed in it so much that we even formed ConverCon – The Conversational Interface Conference, one of the most respected conferences in our industry to evangelise the space. It looks like this industry has now crossed the rubicon with the announcement this week that Nuance has been bought by Microsoft for $20bn.
Nuance is well known as a voice technology provider particularly in healthcare but over the past few years, it has invested in artificial intelligence solutions around this core area of voice input. Nearly 80% of US physicians use a Nuance solution as a key part of their day-to-day workflow. When a doctor is sitting in front of a patient they want to concentrate on the individual, on taking their medical history, on understanding their life. Filling in forms, looking up administrative information and related actions are not going to change how well they are affecting medical outcomes. If a device placed between the clinician and the patient can remove this administrative overhead, or help the clinician “ramp up faster”, there is more time available for exploration, investigation, discovery. The pandemic has accelerated some existing trends and telehealth is one of those.
However, the pandemic has also significantly accelerated the move towards
Digital Credit and Collections. We face many similar process and relationship-related concerns. Taking histories, estimating budgets, evaluating the likelihood of successful outcomes are all tasks that we must undertake. Understanding that there is key data generated in conversations is why companies must move to a deeper understanding of why being absolutely brilliant at conversations is a key future capability. In short capturing conversations is a gateway to what can happen next. Of course, for those watching the software industry for many years, one of the questions that will inevitably arise is how we manage for customer privacy and security.
As a leader in this space, Webio has been invited to participate in a number of industry and analyst led conversations. The most recent being the 'Conversation on Conversational AI' a discussion on the reality of implementing Conversational AI today. I joined Tom Hebner, former Head of Product Innovation, Voice and AI at Nuance and now with NeuroFlash, Nathan Treloar, Founder and COO at Orbita a provider of intelligent assistants to the healthcare industry, and former Principal Search Technology Evangelist and Microsoft, and Nicola France, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, and former Manager, Thought Leadership at Cisco.
Check out out this lively discussion on the Voicebot Podcast with Brett Kinsella.
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