Podcasts about Witlingo

Ahmed Bouzid is an author, CEO and Founder of Witlingo, a SaaS voice AI company that helps brands give a voice to their customers. Ahmed joins me to share the opportunities and challenges with implementing large language models in voice AI systems such as call centres and voice assistants.Presented by Tidio Grow your online store with the #1 customer success tool for eCommerce. Engage with your customers and website visitors in real-time. Provide personalized product recommendations. Use AI-powered chatbot workflows to move prospects through your sales funnel. And so much more.Save 20% on your subscription with the promo code VUX.Find out more about Tidio (use the link https://www.tidio.com/partners/vux/)Check out https://witlingo.com/Ahmeds book - Elements of voice first style https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-Voice-First-Style-Practical/dp/1098119592 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“I mean there's a foundation that needs to be put into place. You don't just say I want this, I want that, you know send me this, send me that. And then you have the people that are very sophisticated and they want like crazy experiences within their marketing and their advertising. So it's kind of like two ends of the spectrum. You've got the people that know so much and wanna take advantage of every new technology. And then you've got the people that didn't even want a sound logo and now they're behind the times a bit. And they want to get caught up and they want to get caught up today. And I think that it's that balance to show them that it's a very iterative process.” -- Audrey Arbeeny As some of you know, I host regular weekly Clubhouse rooms on Wednesdays at 2 PM Eastern Time. We talk about all sorts of things related to sound, including voiceovers, public speaking, podcasting, music, audio branding, voice AI, sound in social media, and especially digital audio. If you'd like to drop by, you can check out the schedule for my House, The Power of Sound, to see what's coming up. We recently had a fascinating discussion (and everyone here knew that the room was being recorded so I do have permission) called The Power of Digital Audio, where talked about what digital audio means, how it's reshaping our online lives, and how AI fits into the voiceover industry.My fellow panelists in this episode are WitLingo founder and CEO Ahmed Bouzid, podcaster and Dreamr Productions founder Jeanna Isham, sound branding professor and Audiobrain founder Audrey Arbeeny, and audio alchemist and sonic strategy director Steve Keller. We start things off by getting to the heart of what we mean by “digital audio” and talk about the marketing push into podcasting and social audio spaces, how digital audio hardware from smart speakers to custom vehicle soundscapes are changing the role of sound in our lives, and how the role of machine learning can be as subtle as speeding up recording sessions or as dramatic as creating whole new voices from scratch.As always, if you have questions for my guest, you're welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you'll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available. And if you're getting some value from listening, feel free to spread that around and share it with a friend, along with leaving an honest review. Both those things really help – and I'd love to feature your review on future podcasts. You can leave one either in written or in voice format from the podcast's main page. I would so appreciate that. Hearing the AuthenticityAs we start the Clubhouse chat, Ahmed introduces himself and tells us how he defines digital audio. “For example, podcasting that you can listen to from your desktop or from your mobile smartphone,” he explains. “I think, that would be an example of digital audio.” We talk about how digital audio can foster a greater sense of connection and listener engagement than traditional audio and mass media. “When you hear that, you can hear their enthusiasm. You can hear their authenticity.” Talking to the CompaniesJeanna introduces herself next, and we talk about how COVID helped change the way people relate to sound in a way that, for Jeanna, seems oddly familiar. “We actually went back to an original idea,” she says. “going back to having just that radio in our kitchen or in the living room and everybody would gather around and listen to the radio. So it's kind of like, in my opinion, it's a full circle...

“But often, and this is fairly universal when I talk to people, whether they're individuals or businesses, is, on one hand, anyone with an iPhone can pick up and start a podcast. There's a very low barrier to entry, which is fantastic. And, like most things when you get into it, it's a little more complicated than you originally thought.” -- Jenn Dudley For those of you that may not know, I host regular weekly Clubhouse rooms on Wednesdays at 2 PM Eastern Time. If you're interested, you can check the schedule in my club, The Power of Sound, to see what's coming up. We talk about all sorts of things related to sound, including voice overs, public speaking, podcasting, music, audio branding, voice AI, sound in social media, and of course, digital audio. This particular discussion (and everyone here knew that the room was being recorded so I do have permission), was called Easy Options for Marketing with Digital Audio, since we talk a lot about marketing and advertising through sound.My fellow panelists in this episode are Ahmed Bouzid of Witlingo, who has been interviewed on this podcast before, and the highly knowledgeable Jenn Dudley of Dante32. We asked a lot of questions, including “what is digital audio” so we had our baseline understanding of what we meant, “why should I care about digital audio,” and “what actions can I take to begin engaging through digital audio?” They share ten specific facts about the rapid rise of digital audio along with ten specific things that we can do to incorporate it into our engagement mix. It's a really interesting discussion, so settle back and listen in. I think you'll learn a thing or two: I know I did!As always, if you have questions for my guests, you're welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. And if you have questions for me, visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you'll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available. And if you'd consider it, I'd love to hear what you think of the podcast! You can leave a review (that I'd love to feature on future podcasts!), either in written or in voice format from the podcast's main page. Giving Them the FactsAs the Clubhouse chat begins, we talk about the definition of digital audio and its presence in every aspect of our modern lives, from podcasts and music apps to teleconferences and user interfaces. “Media in general is such a shift,” Jenn says. “You see the patterns kind of across the space with streaming versus cable and I think you see similar patterns in the audio world.” Ahmed shares ten facts about the rise of digital audio, and how valuable they are in explaining the importance of audio branding and strategies in the corporate world. “What do you need to do to convince your CMO or CEO to give you a budget?” he explains. “First, you need to give them facts.” The Way We LiveThe chat continues with a look at the growing numbers of online listeners, and just how widespread the audience has become over the past few years. "Seventy percent of the population have listened to online audio for the past month," Ahmed tells us. "It's on the rise and it's substantial." Jenn agrees and adds that "we're just starting to see all of the different use cases for how audio is really embedded in the way that we live and the way that we interact with the world around us." Doing Things MobileThe internet's come a long way since its early days, and Ahmed talks about how mobile technology has transformed the way we think about it and use it. "The shift that mobile brought," he says, "is you're able to do things in a lot more places than simply in your home, in the...

Ahmed Bouzid, the Founder and CEO of Witlingo Talks Microcasting and Minting Audio NFTs The Intuitive Edge Podcast -  Host Victoria lynn Weston talks with Ahmed Bouzid, the CEO of Witlingo, an entrepuenar who's passionate about building audio and conversational AI products to make it easy for brands to implement into their [...] The post the Man Behind Witlingo Talks Microcasting and Minting Audio NFTs appeared first on AYRIAL Association of Vetted Lifestyle Consultants.

Ahmed Bouzid has been building and delivering voice solutions his entire career. His company, Witlingo, helps other companies engage their audiences with voice on several levels. That might involve helping companies develop voice skills & interfaces, or providing tools to allow customers to share voice reviews and testimonials.

Lo esencial que debes saber: • Investigación Edelman Trust revela que las empresas son más confiables que el gobierno y los medios de comunicación. • La promoción en pódcast podría ser una buena estrategia para la publicidad sin cookies. • Amazon compra los derechos exclusivos de «My Favorite Murder». • Witlingo un servicio para comenzar una estación de audio. • Zoom lanza nueva grabadora de audio que cabe en la palma de la mano. • Podimo, añade dos nuevas colecciones a su catálogo de audiolibros en español. • Podbean actualiza su reproductor de pódcast para Amazon Alexa. • Forbes estrena pódcast sobre economía para entender la realidad que vivimos. Pódcast recomendado ‘Julio Iglesias. Del hombre a la leyenda'. Una serie de seis episodios que narran la vida del cantante madrileño que ha vendido más de 300 millones de discos. La historia de un jugador del Real Madrid que abandonó el fútbol por una lesión provocada por un accidente automovilístico, que estuvo a punto de dejarle paralítico. Durante su convalecencia descubre la música, se lanza a cantar y en el Festival de Benidorm, en 1968 se convierte en una estrella. Una producción de la revista Hola.

“As human beings, we like to praise others that we believe are doing a great job. The thing is to make the ask easy to answer. So if you say 'can you record a one-minute video,' they would do it – I'm sure they would all do it – but it would be heavier. The lighting has to be good, you cannot have a bad hair day, and so on, whereas in voice you just need to make sure that your voice is okay.” -- Dr. Ahmed Bouzid   In this episode, we continue my interview with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, renowned speech technologist and Witlingo founder and CEO, as we talk about the Open Voice Network and the future of audio social media. As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you're welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit https://audiobrandingpodcast.com (audiobrandingpodcast.com) where you'll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.   Speaking Your Knowledge We begin the second half of the interview by talking about how Witlingo and internet audio can help democratize creativity, allowing people who might shy away from posting videos and pursuing more restrictive forms of audio expression to nonetheless find their voice in online audio communities. As Dr. Bouzid puts it, “there are lots and lots of people who have lots and lots of knowledge, and the best way for them to share that knowledge is just to speak it.” The Social Audio Thing Our discussion focuses on social audio apps as well at the nonprofit Open Voice Network, the ethics of voice AI and social audio, and the power of major companies like Twitter and Facebook to shape the industry. “This social audio thing, I don't think we understand it really that much right now. I think we have the basics of it, but I think where it's going to go and what it's going to be in a year or two, five years, I don't think we really know right now.” Finding Your Voice Online “I think there should be mechanisms,” Dr. Bouzid says as we talk about the future of social audio. “It cannot be left to these private companies to dictate things that have massive consequences.” He goes on to tell us about his work with Witlingo and the versatility it'll give users, allowing fans and creators to share content and feedback, and the interview wraps up on a lighter note as we discover a somewhat surprising hobby that we happen to have in common. Episode Summary Witlingo and the ease of social audio The ethics and dangers of voice AI The challenge of an open audio future How Witlingo can bring users together Connect with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid Witlingo: https://witlingo.com/ (https://witlingo.com/) The Fish & the Bird: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ahmedbouzid_voicefirst-sonic-sonicmarketing-activity-6818992542961438721-2Dvl (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ahmedbouzid_voicefirst-sonic-sonicmarketing-activity-6818992542961438721-2Dvl) Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/didou/ (https://twitter.com/didou/) Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedbouzid/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmedbouzid/) Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast Book your project with https://voiceoversandvocals.com/ (Voice Overs and Vocals) https://voiceoversandvocals.com/ (https://voiceoversandvocals.com) Tweet with me on https://twitter.com/JodiKrangle (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/JodiKrangle (https://twitter.com/JodiKrangle) Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO (YouTube) - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO (https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO) Connect with me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/ (LinkedIn) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/) Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding...

“I would say that the core driver has always been trying to enable more folks to engage, more people to be able to express themselves. So when I go back and look at all the things in my life, that seems to be the theme." --  Dr. Ahmed Bouzid   This episode's guest is the founder and CEO of Witlingo, a McLean, Virginia-based company that builds tools for publishing sonic experiences, from Alexa Skills, Google Actions, and Bixby Capsules to Microcasts and social audio products and solutions. Before Witlingo, he was the Head of Product at Amazon Alexa and the Vice President of Product at Genesys. He holds twelve patents in Human Language Technology, is an Ambassador at The Open Voice Network, an Editor at The Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective (SERRC), and was recognized as a "Speech Luminary" by Speech Technology Magazine, as well as among the Top 11 Speech Technologists by Voicebot.ai. His name is Dr. Ahmed Bouzid, and if you have any interest in the future of voice and technology, this will be an enlightening discussion.  As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you're welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit https://audiobrandingpodcast.com (audiobrandingpodcast.com) where you'll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.   Better Than Computers Dr. Bouzid starts the interview by recalling his formative years in Casablanca, and his memories of waking up to the sounds of chickens on his family's villa. He goes on to tell us about his work as a software engineer and how computers still have a long way to go to catch up with human language skills.  “Language is a very fascinating problem to solve from the technological perspective,” he explains, “one of the hardest problems in artificial intelligence.” Teaching a Machine Manners We take a deeper look at the paradox of machine learning versus the human brain, how people have evolved around the use of language in a way that computers haven't. "Some people say that we are wired for language," he tells us, "that it's something that we are born with." Even something as seemingly simple as being polite can be almost impossible to program into a computer since it depends on so many cultural and social cues that we don't usually think about. The Fish and the Bird Next, we talk about Witlingo and the challenges facing voice-first systems like Alexa and Siri.  Dr. Bouzid explores one of those challenges with a story he calls the Fallacy of the Fish and the Bird that illustrates the temptation to judge a new product using the same metrics that we used for the older ones, even when they don't make sense. As he put it, “the metrics of the fish don't apply to the bird, and, also, there are a lot more fish than there are birds.” Thinking Like a Bot The first half of our interview focuses on the advantages and limitations of chatbots, the uncanny valley that an almost-human voice system can fall into, and his approach to making AI voices and voice-first interfaces more accessible. “I subscribe to the school of thought that says we should not try to have the bot emulate the human being,” Dr. Bouzid explains. “The conversation between a human being and a bot is different than a human being to a human being.” Episode Summary Dr. Bouzid's early childhood in Morocco Why humans are better at speech than computers The challenges of teaching an AI language Witlingo and the metrics of voice-first software How we talk to and interact with voice AI Connect with Dr. Ahmed Bouzid Witlingo: https://witlingo.com/ (https://witlingo.com/) The Fish & the Bird: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ahmedbouzid_voicefirst-sonic-sonicmarketing-activity-6818992542961438721-2Dvl...

What Is Social Audio (Part Two) with Ahmed Bouzid of Witlingo. We talked about how audio has taken charge in social media, the functionality and efficiency of sound in general, and the advantages and options of a voice conversation in a post COVID society, new Witlingo announcements and Lingofest 2021. To learn more about sound in marketing, check out some great resources, take some courses, and join a cool community, go to www.soundinmarketing.com. If you're a brand that needs help navigating the soundspace through research and/or a consultancy, or you're looking to create sonic branding, go to www.dreamrproductions.com and let's chat. You can find the Sound In Marketing Podcast on all the major podcast channels like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Pandora, and Stitcher so don't forget to share it with your friends, follow, and rate it.   For any further inquiries, you can find me at Dreamr Productions www.dreamrproductions.com, Sound In Marketing Learning www.soundinmarketing.com, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.  You can also email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com.  This episode was produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by me, Jeanna Isham. Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.

Ahmed Bouzid the CEO of Witlingo shares how to do you I take voice seriously as a marketing channel. Get more info at https://WitLingo.com/

What Is Social Audio (Part One) with Ahmed Bouzid of Witlingo. We talked about what we see social audio as now and where we see it going, the difference between audio only as opposed to multi modal, the future of audio, and using our imaginations while keeping the importance of a familiarity factor in mind.  To learn more about sound in marketing, check out some great resources, take some courses, and join a cool community, go to www.soundinmarketing.com. If you're a brand that needs help navigating the soundspace through research and/or a consultancy, or you're looking to create sonic branding, go to www.dreamrproductions.com and let's chat. You can find the Sound In Marketing Podcast on all the major podcast channels like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Pandora, and Stitcher so don't forget to share it with your friends, follow, and rate it.   For any further inquiries, you can find me at Dreamr Productions www.dreamrproductions.com, Sound In Marketing Learning www.soundinmarketing.com, Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook.  You can also email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com.  This episode was produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by me, Jeanna Isham. Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.

For this episode in her AI and Voice series, Anne welcomes special guests Ahmed Bouzid, founder and CEO of Witlingo, and Shymala Prayaga, founder of Digital Assistant Academy. These three BOSSES talk ethics, protecting your sonic brand, and AI best practices. Learn ways to use AI to expand your VO business.       2020 BOSS Footer Show notes and exclusive offers at VOBoss.com! FOLLOW THE BOSSES: On Twitter @vo_boss @aganguzza On Instagram @vo_boss @aganguzza On Facebook VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent On You Tube VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VOBOSS iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I5lk5ci2evkqynlddcro5khe7cy?t=VO_BOSS_Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-VO-BOSS-Podcast-29484508  Check us out on our website at http://voboss.com for BOSS swag, BOSS Business products, and our exclusive BOSS University Classes - Sign up for our mailing list to receive the latest news, exclusive content, and offers. Rock your voiceover business LIKE A BOSS! Show notes and exclusive offers at VOBoss.com! FOLLOW THE BOSSES: On Twitter @vo_boss @aganguzza On Instagram @vo_boss @aganguzza On Facebook VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza Voice Talent On You Tube VO BOSS, Anne Ganguzza SUBSCRIBE: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VOBOSS iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/I5lk5ci2evkqynlddcro5khe7cy?t=VO_BOSS_Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g  Check us out on our website at http://voboss.com for BOSS swag, BOSS Business products, and our exclusive BOSS University Classes - Sign up for our mailing list to receive the latest news, exclusive content, and offers. Rock your voiceover business LIKE A BOSS! CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VOBossPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vo_boss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vo_boss/ VO BOSS IS SPONSORED BY: ipDTL: https://ipdtl.com/ Anne Ganguzza Voice Productions: https://anneganguzza.com/ VO BOSS LINKS: Website: http://voboss.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/vo-boss-podcast/id1238870667 Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vo-boss?refid=stpr YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOsTYcJnlKo4t2vjN5h37CA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VOBossPodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vo_boss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vo_boss/ TuneIn: http://tun.in/piZHU Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/43pUzgVrxP0wOBqYXojwrU?si=bbkH-KYbTRGZTb33u1aw-g

Welcome to the Season 3 wrap up of the Sound In Marketing podcast. I'm your host Jeanna Isham, owner and founder of Dreamr Productions and Sound In Marketing Learning.  I create, consult, and educate brands and individuals on the power of sound in marketing.    Clips from my Season 3 interviews are as follows: Jay Kapadia of GM (00:58), Roger Kibbe of Viv Labs (02:16), Shyamala Prayaga of Digital Assistant Academy (04:27), Steve Williams, former VP of Post Production Services at Universal (05:55), Arafel Buzan and Mike Schulte of Mindshare's NeuroLab (07:34), Audrey Arbeeny of Audiobrain (08:33), Jon Stine of the Open Voice Network (09:07), and Miya Kanzaki and Brain Ostreicher of Pandora's Studio Resonate (10:43). Coming up in Season 4, we'll be focusing on definitions because if you don't fundamentally understand the industry, it's harder to navigate it and harder to ultimately succeed. And that's why every episode will start with What Is.  Season 4 premieres Tuesday June 22nd with our first episode What Is Social Audio with Ahmed Bouzid of Witlingo. For more information on sound and marketing, industry resources, courses, and to connect with a really amazing community, go to www.soundinmarketing.com. If you're a brand that is looking for a more specific assessment of their sound marketing options and/or are interested in creating sonic branding, go to www.dreamrproductions.com and let's discuss further. All other thoughts, comments, concerns, you can find me on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also follow and subscribe to the Sound In Marketing Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Pandora, and Stitcher and don't forget to share it with your friends. Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.

When I was on the Voicebot podcast, Bret asked me whether we're going through a voice first winter. I said that I didn't think so, nor did I really care. There are opportunities to do good work and enhance people's lives regardless. However, there has been an undercurrent in pockets of the industry where some folks are becoming frustrated that voice hasn't reached its potential (however you define that).Over the past few weeks, founder of WitLingo, Ahmed Bouzid was involved in a conversation at the popular VoiceLunchmeet where a participant stated that:‘Beyond the weather, time, and the occasional timer and alarm,’ they mused out loud, ‘am I myself really using my Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant that much in my life? I mean, really and honestly, am I? No, actually, not really…. So, if I am not using them that much and yet I am such a believer in Voice First, what hope is there for the rest of the world?’He wrote a piece summarising his thoughts. This coincided with a post from Bespoken.io founder, John Kelvie's post claiming voice is stuck.The primary questions raised in both of these two pieces are:Is voice living up to its promise?Where is the true value in voice first?Has there been enough improvement in the technology and ecosystem to support its own ecosystem like the App Store?To debate this, we brought along Voicebot.ai founder Bret Kinsella, together with Ahmed and John to figure out where we actually stand and where we need to go next. We also continued this discussion on Clubhouse afterwards. Follow @kanesimms on Clubhouse for more open ended after show discussions.LinksRead voicebot.aiCheck out WitLingo and BespokenRead Voice is stuckRead The #VoiceFirst User Interface Has a Use Case Fit ProblemRead Voice first sucksFollow Ahmed, John and Bret on TwitterConnect with Ahmed, John and Bret on LinkedIn See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In episode 71 Ahmed Bouzid, founder and CEO of Witlingo, shares about the Witlingo platform and its purpose. The website even has sections specifically for schools and teachers to learn of meaningful ways to use voice for connecting with stakeholders.

Guest: Brielle Nickoloff, Product Marketing Lead, Witlingo Topic: Toolsets for Voice Creators Brielle joins Dave to talk about Witlingo and the toolsets that they're building off to arm voice creators and help them make content production and distribution easier. For example, Witlingo's platform allows for non-technical people, such as Dave, to quickly publish and disseminate his flash briefing to Alexa and Google Assistant in a matter of minutes. The two talk about how each phase of computing tends to proliferate at an increasing rate, as the toolsets mature, allowing for better production, resulting in an abundance of higher quality content. As Brielle describes to Dave, one interesting area that Witlingo is focusing on is with community messaging - think assisted living facilities or college campuses. Through the various tools Witlingo provides, community managers can broadcast messages and updates on a one-to-many basis or even a one-to-one basis to each of the community members. This type of use case is compelling because it habituates the user to using their voice assistant-enabled devices more regularly, bringing more voice users into the fold. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/futureear/message

Show notes and time codes for Episode 16 of Agile Digital Business Season 2 is about the voice platform, voice first, and voice search marketing.   :03 This is Part 2 of the bonus content shared during the session by Vickie Maris on voice first and voice search in the module, Leading the Strategic Enterprise. Business leaders were studying design thinking ethics, marketing, and were introduced to voice search, voice first, and thoughts about how voice search marketing can be a part of the digital marketing strategy. :26 Introduction to the show. :40 Welcome to Episode 16 of Agile Digital Business with host, Vickie Maris. :51 Points from a blog post at the Pragmatic.digital website. I highly recommend reading this article. Here's the location: https://www.pragmatic.digital/blog/basics-of-voice 1:01 A summary of the quote in the blog at Pragmatic.digital: Gartner stats about early adopter brands ... the data predicts that businesses that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search by 2021 can increase revenue from digital commerce by as much as 30 percent. 1:33 This is a section about being strategic about your company's sonic branding. Word choice, tonal inflection and expression are playing a role in your brand's persona. 2:21 I am a fan of all things voice: podcasting, use of smart speakers, audiobooks! 2:28 In my work as an author, it's part of my strategy to make sure that I narrate each of my books to have them available in audiobook format at Amazon, Audible and other places where you can download audiobooks. If you're not yet a subscriber to Audible, you can follow this path to subscribe and you will have the option of selecting my book as your free download. It's Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery After Being Let Go. My second book is a 30-day journal, which I am currently recording in studio. It should be available in audiobook, paperback and digital formats (for Kindle or Kindle readers) in approximately early November 2019.  For your free trial of Audible, and the option of using your free book credit on my latest book, follow this URL (I'm an affiliate for Audible): https://www.audible.com/pd/B07R2F4FS6/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-149425&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_149425_rh_us 2:44 I describe the audience persona for this podcast, Agile Digital Business 3:24 Sharing content in the podcast that aligns with what you are interested in learning for your business success. 4:16 You can send in your ideas for future episode topics by  4:36 To become a supporter of the show and to get access to the once-a-month Q&A episode that I will be posting in my community out at Patreon, please visit my Patreon account, https://patreon.com/vickiemaris 4:48 Introduction of Part 2 of the bonus content shared with participants of Certificate in Executive Management in the module, Leading the Strategic Enterprise. 5:30 Reminder to listen to Part 1 of the Bonus Content which I have included in the podcast. It is episode 15 of Agile Digital Business. We left off with the information that Marcus Sheridan shares about creating the "80 percent video" for your business. 5:55 I provide examples of brand evangelists. The first one mentioned is Guy Kawasaki who is with Canva and Mercedes Benz, USA. 6:15 My second example of a brand evangelist is Brielle Nickoloff who is with Witlingo. You can hear my interview with Brielle in Episode 14, "Importance of a voice portal on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant." 6:52 Discussion about the value to a company when one or more of its employees are developing a personal brand as they evangelize for your organization. 7:17 An idea: Rather than recruiting for a brand evangelist, why not hire a customer who is already serving in that capacity? 8:17 "As we are in this season of voice, it seems like a really great fit to have someone on your team who is in that role of brand evangelist." Vickie Maris 8:52 In the section on personal brands: "As you develop your own personal brand, and you lean in to your area of expertise, you can create content that your marketing team can use as they are promoting. They can link to it; they can make reference to it in other articles; they can use it all throughout the social media channels. It's a really impactful way to develop authority in a vertical niche." Vickie Maris 9:18 Consider the example of a CEO who is also writing a blog on a regular basis about their own area of interest and expertise. Or, maybe you can think of a person on the team who has their own podcast; or it could be a person who is sharing expertise in a personally-branded YouTube channel. 9:45 "Consider what type of content you can drive. What can you contribute for your organization that no one else knows?" Vickie Maris 9:54 "You might seek out a publication or two that you can label as your 'goal publications,' such as writing an article for Forbes or a guest post on a blog that is aligned with your expertise." Or you could seek to be a guest on a podcast. 10:17 "Now that Google is transcribing podcasts and indexing them at the individual episode level, every time that you add content in a podcast in your area of expertise, you're making it easier for your organization to be found upon search." Vickie Maris 10:36 "An increasing percentage of searches that I like to think of as the 'I'll just Google it' type of screen searches, is moving over to voice search - Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa, others." Vickie Maris 10:56 "Is your content represented at the top of search in those voice queries?" Vickie Maris   Reminder: Part 1 of the Bonus content from my session during Leading the Strategic Enterprise is Episode 15. And, my conversation with Brielle Nickoloff is Episode 14 of the show.  If you are not already subscribed to my show, Agile Digital Business, I invite you to join me on this journey of preparing our businesses for voice! You can subscribe for free in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google and several other podcast directories. I would appreciate if you would help others learn about the podcast and this Season 2 with a focus on voice, by taking a screen shot and sharing it with a friend, or use the social sharing buttons on the show notes blog page at https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com to send it out to your favorite social channel. Thanks for listening! Vickie Maris Author, speaker, digital marketer studying voice first, and idea coach #agiledigitalbiz #teachinspireconnect In the interest of full disclosure, a few of the links above that take you to my books are my affiliate links.               Final section of bonus content from the talk given at the University of Notre Dame in the Certificate in Executive Management on voice search and how it can fit in an overall marketing strategy   Pragmatic.digital A recent blog post that shares the Basics of Voice Garnter has gone on record as stating that by 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%   Another section that stood out to me is the thought about your organization’s sonic branding. How your brand sounds can be critical in building your customer relationships. According to the article, word choice, tonal expression, and inflection all are playing a role in your brand’s persona. I would love to hear from you about how your company or organization is giving thought to your sonic brand and steps you’re taking to develop its persona to align with the persona of your target audience. When I think of you, my listener, I picture the participants of the executive education sessions I’ve taught at the university or the people I’ve spoken to after I’ve given a talk at a conference. My thought is that if you’ve been fascinated enough with something I’ve shared, to stop by to visit with me about it, then you just very well might be in my podcast listening audience. I would love to hear from you! You can send me an email at agiledigitalbusiness@gmail.com or you can leave me a voice message   Same ending as previous episode.  

Ahmed Bouzid is the CEO of Witlingo, a former Amazon Alexa head of product Smart Home employee and a voice first evangelist. He spoke at Voice Summit a few months ago and today he's on talking with Keri Roberts about how business managers with no tech experience can create a brand presence, what a voice experience can look like plus his top tips for starting and growing a voice based business and the current voice experiences he's using and enjoying right now. BE A PART OF OUR UPCOMING EVENTS VOICE Live from CES Wednesday, January 8, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Want to learn more about voice for business or want to share your knowledge? Join us as a speaker, sponsor or attendee by filling out a form here. VOICE Global 2.20.2020 Worldwide 24 hour livestream conference for those at the forefront of conversational development, design and the artificial intelligence platforms driving transformation. Join us to speak, host viewing parties, host livestream stages or sponsor the event by filling out a form here.

During my conversation Brielle Nickoloff, lead, product marketing, for Witlingo, she and I discuss the value of moving quickly in the voice platform. Hear how Amazon Alexa searches data sources to respond to voice search as well as insights about voice portals for your customers. Nickoloff has a background in linguistics and neuroscience and user interface design. Her unique combination of degrees led her to Witlingo, which helps companies build voice experiences. Here is our conversation and the associated time codes to help you locate key moments in the interview:   :29 Introduction from Scott Greeson :42 Vickie Maris introduces the upcoming interview with Brielle Nickoloff, Witlingo. Vickie and Brielle met while attending the voice panel during Podcast Movement 2019. 1:53 Vickie provides background information about Brielle and her work in the voice community. 2:48 Brielle speaks three languages and has several publications to her credit. You can read more at her LinkedIn profile. 3:49 Reach Brielle via email, brielle @ witlingo dot com or through her LinkedIn profile. 4:08 How Brielle was led to the voice space. She had been double majoring in Neuroscience and Linguistics with an intent to go to Medical School. 4:32 A seminar in her linguistics program about profanity; she did a paper about why people get so frustrated with robot.   5:27 Her transition to voice for her career. 5:58 Vickie talks about taking a graduate level linguistics course during her undergraduate program 6:50 Brielle talks about the point at which she decided that she was not interested in taking the MCAT which had been part of her original plan 7:38 Contemplation of becoming a coder and attending a coding boot camp or other learning activities it would take to work in the voice space 8:21 A conversation with a best friend who was studying art and design had been sending job postings to Brielle about Google needing designers and linguists 9:03 Exploration about a career path in user experience design. 10:03 Voice design and roles in a "voice" career 10:30 Brielle began as a voice designer with Witlingo 11:22 Brielle is in a position at Witlingo that didn't exist a few years ago in this budding industry. 11:56 Reasons explained for the growth of the voice platform. 12:07 With voice, you don't have to learn how talk. 12:31 "We're finally at a point where this technology can understand us and speak back to us. Alexa was the first one. She helped make it mainstream." 13:03 "We need so many people in this field." 13:38 Vickie asks "What does a business need to do today to be ready for voice and how people are incorporating it in to their daily lives." 14:40 We're now at a point when you're in a room asking people if they know about voice assistants, everybody has at least tried it." 15:10 What does it mean to pay a company to build out a voice experience for you? 15:28 Witlingo has refined its offering to a SAS (software as a service) product for their clients. https://www.witlingo.com/ 16:02 "With a website, you wanted to build your SEO roots early on when text-based search engines came out. Those who started building out very strong, rich content on any search engine were the ones who would be pushed to the top." Brielle Nickoloff 16:35 "There is no such thing anymore as seeing the 10 blue hyperlinks on Google's first page." 16:44 "If you a voice assistant a question about a brand, a company, anything; what you get back is one, single answer. It's not a bunch of options anymore." 16:56 "Even in text-based search engines, that has been a shift we're seeing as well." 17:30 "There is quite an interesting parallel between that and what is going on with voice." 17:56 "Our product is designed so that you can sit down and record FAQs about yourself or your company... It makes so that people can find what people are searching for about your company." 18:38 "There are two things to consider with voice - the content creation and the content consumption." 19:35 "In a few years, it will be an absolute table stake for your brand to have a presence in voice. 19:52 A voice assistant will first search its own, internal database. If they can't find the answer there, they move out to the voice web. In Alexa's case, it is the Alexa Skills. Then, she'll go to the web search. Alexa is powered by Bing. The Google Assistant is powered by Google. 20:51 "Planting those voice roots very early on" is important. 21:00 Web content is not designed to be consumed while you're listening to it. 21:18 "People usually use long term searches when they are conversationally asking for things." 21:38 Include general things that you want to be an authority on. 21:56 "If you are building out that rich, voice-based content, then you're going to have a leg up in the future when the algorithms are more refined and able to actually pull an answer from third-party skills in areas where you are an authority." 22:44 Invitation to grab a screen shot of this episode with Brielle Nickoloff, and share it out with your friends and colleagues. 24:00 How to add the podcast, Agile Digital Business, to your Flash Briefing on your Amazon Echo device so that you can ask Alexa to "play your flash briefing." 25:30 "We're getting a lot of traction with marketing executives who have signature power." 26:00 "We're seeing everything from B to C; B to B.  27:12 "40 percent of adults use voice search every day and that is growing rapidly." 27:44 "You have customer care: You can easily reach your customers by providing answers and information they would need, just by asking." 27:58 There is also the digital marketing aspect. You can surface first when users are searching. 28:20 Episode about adding the Alexa Skill for the podcast appeared rapidly in search results in iTunes in the top two rows of options. 30:01 "We're banking on the idea that any serious business that has a website, a Twitter, etc., that voice is the next table stake to consider." 31:02 Brielle describes Flash Briefings that you can create for Alexa users 31:24 "If you add a Skill to your Flash Briefing lineup, you never have to remember the name of the Skill to invoke it anymore." 33:06 Witlingo team is excited to be able to provide the Flash Briefing capability to companies interested in creating a Flash Briefing for their customers to enable. 33:45 Vickie provides the example of connecting her RSS feed for her podcast with her Flash Briefing Amazon Alexa Skill 34:19 Opportunity to grab embed code from your portal with Witlingo, which allows you to feature the voice of your users providing feedback. 35:05 On being "platform agnostic." Special Offer from Witlingo to Listeners of Agile Digital Business 35:34 Brielle mentions an offer for the use of Witlingo tools for listeners who would like to try the service. If you mention that you heard about the company via Agile Digital Business podcast, the company will get you set up for a year of use of service for free. Brielle can provide more details. (Check with Witlingo about the length of this offer.) 36:56 Vickie provides an example from her experience as an author, and the importance of publishing your books in audiobook format. Her first book, Job Loss and the Cutback Blues: Journey of Grief, Uncertainty and Recovery After Being Let Go, is available as an audiobook through Amazon, Audible and other locations. The book she is about to publish will also be available as an audiobook. 37:24 Conference, Digital Bookworld, is mentioned by Brielle. Bradley Metrock (https://twitter.com/bmetrock) created the conference. It's about publishing in the age of voice and the age of digital books. 37:35 Alexa conference is now called Project Voice. Brielle highly recommends this event as well. 38:03 Show notes are in the podcast Libsyn blog, https://vickiemaris2.libsyn.com 38:29 Thank you. 39:06 Music closing                    

This week's interviews are all about the intersection of podcasts (the content) and voice assistants (the channel). Interviews were conducted onsite at the Podcast Movement conference. Guests include Zack Reneau-Wedeen of Google followed by Tom Webster from Edison Research, Suzy Schulz of Westwood One, Will Mayo of Spoken Layer and Steve Goldstein from Amplifi Media. We close with Ahmed Bouzid and Brielle Nickoloff from Witlingo. In all, seven guests weigh in on the intersection of podcasts and voice. 

Wed Newz Witlingo

Today, Voice Summit Programming and Content Director, Janice Mandel, welcomes Ahmed Bouzid to the Inside VOICE podcast. Dr. Ahmed Bouzid is Founder and CEO of Witlingo, a McLean, Virginia, based startup that builds products and solutions for Voice First devices and platforms, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana, and Samsung’s Bixby. Prior to Witlingo, Dr. Bouzid was Head of Alexa's Smart Home Product at Amazon and VP of Product and Innovation at Angel.com. Dr. Bouzid is also co-founder and Director of the Ubiquitous Voice Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of evangelizing the emerging voice interface. He holds 12 patents in the Speech Recognition and Natural Language Processing field, and is a visiting lecturer at Weber State University. He was also recognized as a “Speech Luminary” by Speech Technology Magazine.

This is the inaugural presentation of Voice First Webinars - Marketing in the Age of Voice webinar presented by Pragmatic and Witlingo. In this webinar we cover: Understand why Voice is such a big deal Develop the case to invest in Voice for your brand Identify and develop a Voice skill that is useful and usable Bring that compelling Voice application to life To view a demo of the Witlingo platform, please visit: https://youtu.be/C3t83WWZXDo For more information on the webinar series, please visit www.voicefirstwebinars.com

In this episode, I talk with Neha Javalagi of Witlingo about Voice UX and Persona Design! Neha Javalagi https://twitter.com/nehajava https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehajavalagi/ https://medium.com/@neha.javalagi Witlingo https://www.witlingo.com/ Women In Voice https://twitter.com/WomenInVoice https://womeninvoice.wordpress.com/get-involved/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Voiciety https://www.voiciety.io https://www.voiciety.io/podcast https://www.voiciety.io/community/articles Intro Music: Soul Groove by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Artist: http://audionautix.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/voiciety/support

Feb 5, 2019 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri welcomes Brielle Nickoloff and Neha Javalagi from the company Witlingo.Welcome Brielle and Neha!Teri met Brielle and Neha at the recent Alexa Conference and is featuring them on the podcast to talk about some incredible products that they have launched, namely; Castlingo (a micro-podcasting tool which has been live for a while now) and Buildlingo (which they just launched). Brielle is the Lead for Product Marketing and Neha is the Lead for Product Management, and they’re going to talk about how their products make it so simple for people to get their content onto a voice assistant platform.WitlingoThey started in early 2016. The founder of the company, Ahmed Bouzid, was on the Amazon Alexa team.They focus on building products and solutions to enable brands and companies to get their presence onto voice in a way that provides a great customer experience for their own customers. It requires no coding.They started out building custom skills for people.CastlingoIt’s a micro-podcasting platform. It’s an app available in both iOS and Android.Anyone who wants to share their thoughts with the world can record up to 77 seconds of audio, post them on their own branded Alexa skill or Google Action. The audio content will be searchable so people can get the audio content that matches their interests which makes Castlingo interactive. The audios are referred to as “casts”They did beta testing and realized that 77 seconds is good enough time to get across one particular idea or thought. People can also convert the 77-second audio into a flash briefing.They visualize a future where casts can interact with each other.BuildlingoIt’s a product that enables a brand or company to create and maintain a voice experience on Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant by just recording audio clips on a mobile app. The audio can be focused on helping customers quickly get answers to questions about the brand or company’s products and services.The most challenging part for companies when they want to develop a skill is how to design a compelling, delightful and good user experience.Witlingo understands what a good voice experience entails and have created template-like solutions that anyone can use easily. A user records audio snippets on the app and inputs them into a template by assigning each audio into the relevant section of the template.A company can even convert its FAQs into an interactive voice experience.Along with the Buildlingo app, users are also provided with a web portal which provides them with analytics on how their skill or action is doing, what customers are asking, what the frequently used keywords are, and other things. They can also upload MP3s into the web portal.They already have brands that are using Buildlingo like publishers providing information about the next books that are coming out. There are schools that are using it to provide information to teachers about school events and other things.Every audio that is recorded within the app or uploaded into the portal is automatically indexed in the backend.There is a manual tagging system in the portal so users can assign keywords to audios if they need to.Anybody who needs to sign up for Buildlingo can get the mobile app and start recording audios or record the audios and upload them to the portal. Witlingo can also provide voice actors if a brand or company needs them.Witlingo can have a company’s Buildlingo skill set up in just a matter of days. The skill takes about 4 or 5 days to be up and running.List of resources mentioned in this episode:WitlingoCastlingoBuildlingoFree Flash Briefing CourseOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode, Teri does a round-up of the conversations he had about voice with different people at the 2019 Alexa Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Teri was a speaker at the conference and talked about voice technology in the context of healthcare. He also led a workshop on how to create a flash briefing and recorded a flash briefing live for his Voice in Canada flash briefing. Shanthan Kesharaju He is the founder of Sermo Labs, LLC. They build educational Alexa skills that ignite young minds to learn interest in maths especially by practicing at home.They built “1-2-3 Math” which has been top trending on the Amazon store in different categories. It has three difficulty levels; easy, medium and hard. It can be used by any school going child up to middle school depending on what their skill levels are. Parents have said the skill helps their children in doing their homework.Shanthan gave a talk at the conference about how he built a top trending Alexa skill and shared his journey. Armel Beaudry KembeHe is the founder of Trebble.FM, a free service that allows users with no technical experience to record byte-size “shortcast” voice messages (aka “capsules”) on Trebble.fm using your smartphone or internet browser. Then, anyone in the world with a voice-activated speaker, such as the Amazon Echo, is able to listen to those shortcasts instantly.He is excited about voice and thinks 2019 is going to be a great year.Expects Amazon to announce a lot of great voice features/devices around cars.Pete EricksonHe is the founder of Modev and the creator of the VOICE Summit.They opened their call for proposals for the VOICE Summit during the Alexa Conference. The response was fantastic.Stuart PattersonHe is the co-founder and CEO of Lifepod.He liked the HealthTrack, a dedicated healthcare track which was a great mix of healthcare institutions, developers, and industry analysts. It gave Lifepod the opportunity to demonstrate their proactive voice capabilities along with the skill linking that they do in the session management that they do in their dialogue management system for caregivers.Daniel Hill He is the founder of Daniel Hill Media.He teaches small business owners how to use Instagram and has the The Instagram Stories podcast.He launched the Alexa flash briefing skill, The Instagram Stories, where he gives up-to-date news on Instagram, discusses news articles and also does a Q&A session he answers whatever questions people have about the platform.He learnt a lot at the conference about what other people are doing in terms of making skills.He wants to move more into skill development.Dave KempHe also writes the blog, FuturEar. He is quickly becoming one of the leading voices on smart hearables.He has observed a huge adoption of smart assistants within the senior population.As people get older, they tend to lose their hearing, and Dave sees there being a combination between hearing aid adoption and smart assistant adoption because the two can work in conjunction very well. There is smart assistant integration taking place in hearing aids and hearing devices in general.Doug SchumacherHe is the founder of Arrovox, which strategizes and develops digital marketing solutions.He is the creator of the Homie and Lexy Podcast, a satirical podcast that dives into the lives of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant from their perspectives. Doug uses text-to-speech and quality voices to create a dialogue between the two assistants.He also runs the podcast, Voice Marketing.Doug learnt more about the voice space and developing voice solutions for businesses.Amy StapletonShe is the founder of Tellables, a company that creates conversational stories for voice first devices.She gave a talk at the conference about using Alexa to capture attention as a story teller.She was also promoting their new skill, “My Box of Chocolates”, which is available in the US and Canada. One can say, “Alexa, open my box of chocolates” and they get an interesting little candy that’s not real, but is associated with a funny little story and one can talk to Alexa about the story. They are currently soliciting content from authors to be published with their chocolates.Brielle NickoloffShe is the Lead, Product Marketing at Witlingo.Witlingo created the CastLingo skill to help people record short snippets of whatever they want their audience to hear, and connect with them in a very unique way that conveys emotion through voice. They think this is the future of how people start connecting with their followers and audience.Dr. Neel DesaiHe is from the company, MedFlash Go.The MedFlash Go skill will be geared towards the medical education space with the goal of helping medical students save time, money and anxiety. The skill will help them study for their exams.John DeanHe is the Co-Founder at Triad Health A.I., which uses smart speakers to make smart exercises for Parkinsons. They see the opportunity to do things that are interactive in a home environment so people can stay independent, and also capture interesting data. They capture the performance data with the exercises and they couple that with the audio which provides them with a lot of very interesting information from people with Parkinsons.Brian RoemmelleHe was introduced at the conference as the Modern Day Thomas Edison and the Oracle of Voice.He is writing a book called “The Last Interface”The Last Interface is a combination of many different ideas that he is trying to put together so that more people can understand it. It’s a wisdom keeper which stores all of the knowledge and wisdom that we have accumulated within us by seeing and reading things.He believes that in the next year we are going to start seeing a very gradual, but noticeable shift of being able to actually have conversations with our voice AI systems. List of resources mentioned in this episode:1-2-3 MathTrebble.FMModevThe Voice SummitLifepodThe Instagram StoriesFuturEar BlogHomie & Lexy PodcastTellablesMy Box of ChocolatesCastLingoDr. Neel DesaiBrian Roemmelle Interview 1Brian Roemmelle Interview 2Flash Briefing Formula CourseOther Useful resources:Voice in Canada: The Flash BriefingComplete List of Alexa CommandsReviews of top Alexa Skills in CanadaAlexa-Enabled and Controlled Devices in CanadaTeri Fisher on TwitterAlexa in Canada on TwitterAlexa in Canada Facebook PageAlexa in Canada Community Group on FacebookAlexa in Canada on InstagramPlease leave a review on iTunesShopping on Amazon.caThe Alexa Conference, presented by VoiceFirst.FMuse promo code ALEXAINCANADA for 20% off See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Judy Dawn (author) and Brielle Nickoloff (VUI designer, Witlingo) join host Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing, and executive producer of Digital Book World) to discuss using voice tech to promote books. Specifically, we discuss Castlingo, a new product from Witlingo which enables anyone to create an Alexa skill for free and without knowing code. Publisher Nation is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

A lot happened in voice assistant land in 2018. An all-star panel breaks it down for you this week with Ahmed Bouzid, CEO of Witlingo, Tom Hewitson from Labworks.io, and Karen Kaushansky of Robot Futures. We discuss the biggest stories of 2018, break down what Amazon, Google, and Apple did right and wrong this year, whether Samsung Bixby will succeed, and predictions for 2019. We also do a real-time Twitter poll on whether Google Duplex, the rapid expansion of voice assistant language support, Echo Dot record sales, or Samsung Bixby 2.0 was the biggest story of 2018. Join us for a fast-paced and insightful review of what happened and what is to come.  

Brielle Nickoloff, Voice UX Designer at WitlingoBrielle Nickoloff is a Lead of Voice User Experience Design and Research at Witlingo, a Washington D.C., based startup that builds products and solutions for Voice First devices and platforms, such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana. Brielle earned dual Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Much of Brielle’s research in the space began with a closer look at the ways one’s emotional reaction to a voice interface is notably more inflated than reactions to other types of user interfaces. She loves to design for maximally accessible and minimally intrusive technology by leveraging the beauty of natural human language.Voice Marketing Presence with CastlingoAttend the Alexa Conference January 15-17, 2019Follow Brielle on Twitter: @ElleForLanguage See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With a last-minute need to reschedule our previously-scheduled guests, we invited friend of the show Brian Roemmele - the person who coined the term "voice-first" - to join us. Host Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) discussed with Brian the top stories in voice-first technology, in his mind, as we head toward the end of the year. The result is a wide-ranging hour-long conversation touching on a number of very relevant issues in the young space, and a look ahead to issues that will shape voice technology well into 2019. This Week In Voice is brought to you by Castlingo, which allows anyone to create an Alexa skill without knowing any code by using Witlingo's mobile app to upload audio - super easy for anyone from podcasters to publishers to politicians and anyone else! This Week In Voice is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

This week, we're finding out how brands can get started and enter the voice first world of smart speakers and digital assistants.Me and Dustin Coates are joined by one of the top US voice first agencies, Witlingo. We speak with two Lead VUX designers, Luciana Morias and Brielle Nickoloff, about how your brand can bridge the gap over to voice.In this episodeBrielle and Luciana share how they guide brands through the process of discovering their voice and establishing a voice first presence.We discuss the new challenge of working out what your brand sounds like and how to determine whether to focus on voice first content or voice as a service.They discuss how brands should be playing the long game and the challenge of convincing clients to start small and adopt a continuous improvement culture to grow their voice first capability.We chat about figuring out whether your should repurpose existing content or create new and discuss some of the great guides to voice design that Witlingo produce, including the guide to making your Facebook content voice friendly.Our guestsLuciana Morais has a background in UX research and analysis and has a wealth of design experience. Now working at Witlingo as UX Lead and VUI Designer.Brielle Nickoloff has a background in linguistics and has published a study on The use of profane threats and insults in the Anthropomorphization of digital voice assistants. Brielle is also Lead Voice User Experience Research and Design at Witlingo.Where to listeniTunes/Apple podcastsSpotifyStitcherTuneIniHeartRadioPippaAny other podcast player you use or ask Any Pod to play VUX World on AlexaLinksVisit the Witlingo websiteFollow Witlingo on TwitterRead Witlingo's VUI assessment guidelinesRead Witlingo's Facebook guidelinesFollow Brielle on TwitterFollow Luciana on TwitterCheck out the Ubiquitous Voice SocietyRead Brielle's paper: The use of profane threats and insults in the Anthropomorphization of digital voice assistantsIt's about the interface stupid See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An all-star duo (Luciana Morais and Brielle Nickoloff, both of DC-based Witlingo) discuss the latest in voice technology news, including Facebook's delayed smart display, 5 ways to improve Alexa Routines, Bank of America's new bot "Erica," and a candid discussion regarding #VoiceCon, Gary Vaynerchuk's $1,000, one-day conference. Hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

Ahmed Bouzid is founder and CEO of Witlingo, a company that helps brands, non-profits and other organizations ranging from The Motley Fool and Berlitz to AARP and a successful Virginia Gubernatorial candidate create voice enabled apps. Ahmed has more than 20 years experience working in speech technology. He worked on the early version of Alexa while at Amazon, was a product leader at Angel.com and even built a natural language voice assistant in the 1990's. He has a Masters Degree in computer science, a PhD from Virginia Tech, is the founder of the Ubiquitous Voice Society association and is a lecturer at Weber State University.  In this week's episode, we talk about voice assistant development in the 1990's, the creation of voice interaction authoring tools for non-developers, the idea behind web pages for voice, what it was like working on the Amazon Alexa team and his first two years of work at Witlingo. We even spend some time assessing the leading voice assistant platform strengths and weaknesses and touch on the importance of the Gutenberg parenthesis. It's the longest Voicebot Podcast episode yet, but its packed with history and insight. Enjoy. 

CEO of Score Publishing, producer of Digital Book World 2018 Interview starts at 15:44 and ends at 43:43 “The Echo Show is an incredible glimpse into the future, because the future is going to be words come out of your mouth, and that's how you engage the computer rather than typing on a QWERTY keyboard or moving a mouse.” News “Amid Takeover Talk, Barnes & Noble Posts $30 million Q2 Loss, Stock Sheds 10%” by Jonathan Ponciano at Forbes - November 30, 2017 “B&N Has Disappointing Second Quarter” by Jim Milliot at Publishers Weekly - November 1, 2017 “Barnes & Noble's sales hit by the curse of Harry Potter” by the AP - December 1, 2017 “To save itself, Barnes & Noble is pivoting to books” by Thu-Huong Ha at Quartz - November 30, 2017 “Why Barnes & Noble Wants Smaller Stores” by Phil Wahba at Fortune - November 30, 2017 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling “No takeover for Barnes and Noble after that earnings bomb” at Yahoo Finance - November 30, 2017 “4 Reasons Barnes and Noble Failed the Nook” by Jessie Nuez at Babble - 2013 “Amazon's Alexa heads to the workplace” by Dave Lee at BBC - November 30, 2017 Interview with Bradley Metrock Score Publishing Digital Book World Alexa Conference - Keynote by Ahmed Bouzid, CEO Witlingo (and original head of product for Amazon's Alexa and Connected Homes initiative) Tellables, Earplay (TKC interview with CEO Jon Myers in November, 2016), and Novel Effect VoiceFirst.FM AWS Reinvent Tim O'Reilly's Tools of Change conference Author Earnings (Hugh Howey and Data Guy) Apple's iBooks Author WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up To Us by Tim O'Reilly Outro Music: “Happiness (in F major) by Bradley Metrock on Mountain Radio Silence, used with permission Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD. Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Lisa Falkson is the Principal Voice UX Architect at self-driving car startup NIO and also serves as an advisor to Witlingo, a voice technology design and development startup. She previously worked at Amazon's famous Lab126 as a Senior Voice User Interface Designer where she helped launch three voice enabled products in 2014, including Amazon Echo. An electrical engineer trained originally at Stanford and later earning an MSEE from UCLA, Lisa started her career as a software developer at Sun Microsystems before working at Nuance Communications for either years. Her background is rare because of her deep experience in voice design. There is a lot to learn from her unique insights. Enjoy!

In an abbreviated episode, host Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) discusses the week's news (Facebook creating an Echo Show competitor, Rolling Stone's piece on privacy in a world of smart speakers, Apple's short film with The Rock promoting Siri, and more) with Brian Roemmele (producer of ReadMultiplex.com), Ahmed Bouzid (CEO, Witlingo), and Adam Marchick (CEO and co-founder, VoiceLabs). News of VoiceFirst.FM's new sponsor, VoiceXP, is included at the end of the podcast, with full press release to follow next week.

Host Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) interviews Dr. Ahmed Bouzid (CEO, Witlingo). Topics include monetization of voice skills, the type of experience that should be provided for discovering skills, and the work Dr. Bouzid is doing with both Witlingo as well as the Ubiquitous Voice Society.