Ads that Talk Back to You – Nuance Joins the Party

April 1, 2013 by

Anyone who’s been following contentAI for awhile knows that we’ve been offering and producing prototypes for mobile ads that can “talk back” to the consumer (via text conversations) for quite awhile.

The most basic notion of talking to a characters on a cereal box seems obvious to us.

And, incorporating speech-to-text or voice recognition is quite easy to achieve with our core platform – The value is in our engine that delivers the “right response,” not just random noise!

Well, one of our colleagues sent us this article today from AllThingsD that NUANCE are announcing an ad unit that “talks back to the customer.”

http://allthingsd.com/20130401/coming-to-your-phone-ads-that-talk-back-to-you/

There’s additional detail over on VentureBeat:  http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/nuance-voice-ads-launch/

Nuance are a terrific company – We like their voice recognition technology alot.  But, from the sound of it, their new ad units are more random than conversational – Less nuanced (pun intended) than the contentAI platform; and the “push” conversational pitch at the end is what we achieve through a more natural, motivated virtual character (along with personalization and variations on the pitch, based on the User’s conversational input).

But, clearly, if NUANCE have joined the conversational ad unit party, then this space is going to get alot busier.  Each company and conversational engine will have their own specific upsides.  We’re fascinated to see this space garner more attention and a higher profile.  A company like Nuance can raise the tide for all…we hope!

Filed Under: AI conversation, AI conversational network, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, mobile marketing, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Side Trip to 2nd Screen Apps

February 28, 2013 by

Via our parent company, zyntroPICS inc., contentAI studios have been testing integration capabilities with various interactive video platforms — The purpose has been to create truly unique 2nd Screen experiences.

zyntroPICS inc. was recently engaged to undertake a significant interactive video project for a major U.S. network that may appear unrelated to the contentAI platform, but, in fact, is a natural extension of the general commitment to story-driven, complementary applications that are allied with motion picture and television product.

We’ll be pleased to share some of the work as it becomes released publicly.

So called “2nd Screen” applications are broadly defined as an interactive experience that’s allied with linear television content.  Sometimes that can include “interactive video” itself, not just non-video assets.  We’re really excited to see how the evolution of interactive video itself will further enhanced 2nd Screen apps, in conjunction with ancillary tools, such as the contentAI platform, where Users can “chat” with on-screen characters.  How that could mash-up with interactive video itself (a “chat” could control the video to some degree?)…ah, the future is bright…

Filed Under: 2nd Screen, Products, Transmedia Content and AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , ,

Tooth Fairy App – Free For Limited Time

September 25, 2012 by

We looked at our stats for Santa (free).  We looked at our stats for the Tooth Fairy (paid).

We looked at user engagement (anonymous chat logs).  Kids really enjoy both apps.

We decided to open up a basic version of My Tooth Fairy Chat for a limited free offering – While we explore sponsorship opportunities — Since we’d prefer to release all of our children’s apps at no cost to the consumer (but, we don’t want a lot of 3rd party advertising to clutter up the experience).

So, as of today, our Tooth Fairy App on mobile, Android, Kindle Fire, etc. is free.  We hope we can keep it that way as a sponsored app; akin to how commercial television was first launched.

So, please look for our App in:

CHROME STORE

PLAY STORE

AMAZON APP STORE

KINDLE FIRE STORE

 

 

Filed Under: Transmedia Content and AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , ,

contentAI Autumn Updates

September 25, 2012 by

Summer was (as always) far too brief.

Here @ contentAI, we spent most of the summer working on our consumer-facing English as a Second Language (http://eslAI.com) conversational applications, especially a children’s series (the abcDog series).  We also expanded to release all of our apps on the Chrome App Store.

But, as the clouds return to the Pacific Northwest and temperatures drop, we’re pleased that the calendar has turned to Autumn.

So, what’s in store?

*  First, we found a “vertical scroll” issue in Android 4.0 and above devices.  Both with Native and web apps.  That’s #1 on the list.

*  Due to the popularity of our free children’s apps, we’re opening up our My Tooth Fairy Chat as a free app for the Season.  We’ve got some nice reviews but want to see more kids enjoy the app; and we’re also looking into sponsorship relationships so that we can keep the app free

*  ’Tis the Season – Yup, after two successful Holiday Seasons of upgrading and releasing our My Santa Talk app, we’re considering what enhancements we can incorporate into this year’s iteration?  Due to the nuances of Google Play store, we may have to set up a new listing…app stores are remarkably inconsistent in how developers can submit revisions; especially major revisions built with new tools.  More info on this to follow.

Overall, our focus for commercial work shifted over the summer as “2nd Screen” application became more of a realistic business model.  We’re continuing to pursue and explore unique ACR relationships and engage Network’s digital departments in discussions.  Our initial tests of combining storied television content with virtual character chat shows amazing potential.

Filed Under: 2nd Screen, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Evolving Distribution Patterns in Mobile and Browsers

September 10, 2012 by

While the Native v. HTML5 pseudo-battle waged over the past year, we pretty much stayed away from it – We’re platform agnostic – We work with nearly all formats (including ye olde Java apps)…

But, for our own proprietary Apps it’s been fascinating to see how one of our strongest release channels has been the CHROME STORE, as “browser based” apps (which is really a fancy book mark in many respects).  But, the numbers have been truly surprising, especially for children’s content and educational content.  While (for comparison) the Amazon App Store and Kindle Fire Store are great…CHROME is hitting a 2x – 3x factor over Amazon.  Even compared to PLAY, CHROME has been exceedingly strong.

The strange thing is that we have done virtually zero promotion for our CHROME STORE apps.

Maybe we should…though they seem to be doing really well, all on their own.

Filed Under: Brands and Mobile, mLearning, Mobile, mobile marketing, Transmedia Content and AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , , ,

NFC Tap to Chat with Virtual Character

July 31, 2012 by

We’re fans of NFC (near field communication) technology for creative applications (looking forward to payments as well)…

We’ve been testing and watching the user interaction off of Beta apps where an NFC tap leads to a chat with one of our virtual characters – And, comparing this to alternative triggers, such as shortcode SMS, QR codes, URL shorteners, etc.

Hands down, NFC wins.  It’s a great user experience because (a) it’s habitual and (b) it’s a mindless gesture, more instinctual than thought driven.

These are NFC Tags from TAGSTAND (we also use their Android app, TAGSTAND WRITER, for encoding)

If you’d like a sample NFC tag encoded to reach any of our applications sent to you, just CONTACT US.

Filed Under: Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Friendly machines, mobile marketing, NFC, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , ,

Keep The Front-End (REALLY) Simple – Mobile UX

July 3, 2012 by

It was really refreshing to read a post today by developer Christian Heilmann entitled:

ON SINGLE PAGE APPS

Which has been a primary focus for contentAI since the earliest days of designing the platform.

A few standout quotes:

The first load sends you the shell of the app and it stays in the browser – this means it can be a very quick experience

The experience is sticky – you stay in one interface and load content into it which is what “real” apps do

All of the complexity resides in the backend, away from the customer.  A clean interface is one which never forces the User to “hunt around.”

It’s why we’ve believed that Natural Language Processing for mobile web experiences is an excellent UX.  With the mad rush to create NLP “virtual assistants” who can Search across multiple APIs, we’ve remained focused on “brand agents” with specific knowledge pools and perhaps more importantly with brand specific “voices” (even in text) rather than a generic spokesperson who “speaks for many.”

We’ve continued to simplify our front-end design and UX over the past half-year, continuously “removing” visible elements in order to keep the interface as direct as possible.  While we could create more hyperlinked activity with the inclusion of graphics, video and audio, we are endeavoring to keep everyone on the “single page.”  From our analytics, we see this working exceptionally well.

Filed Under: Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , ,

Virtual Agents Designed for Mobile First

July 1, 2012 by

The contentAI platform was specifically designed for “mobile first” engagement – With virtual agents and characters who differ greatly from “online” bots and virtual agents.

That key difference is with our “proactive” (or, “motivated“) virtual agents/characters who view each engagement as if it’s a short scene that has a logical conclusion (contextual to the mobile location; even if that location is someone’s couch).

It was refreshing to read the analysis of Fred Wilson’s recent “mobile first” post on Venture Beat this morning:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/01/vc-fred-wilson-says-mobile-is-where-the-growth-is/

With some key take-away lines:

 …mobile doesn’t not reward “feature richness” but rather “light services.”

And:

 The companies that treat the mobile and web experiences differently are likely to prosper.

 

 

Filed Under: 2nd Screen, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , ,

Past, Present & Future – Automating Customer Service & Social Media

June 7, 2012 by

The article by analyst @jowyang on Techcrunch today:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/07/brands-start-automating-social-media-responses-on-facebook-and-twitter/

Took us back in time, about 2 years, when we first tested automated “human’ish” responses with our platform, via Twitter (and, even into Facebook, via IM).

We discussed with Brands about the cost and scaling of “humans” v. automated bots (as well as consistency and the instant response we provide), but, 2 years ago, I guess we came across sounding like Science Fiction fans, not mobile and social marketers!

So, today, it’s official, we in the “nascent, but growing” stage of seeing this engagement format move into the marketplace.  Our two years of building our platform and testing our “creative” and interactive narrative positions us well ahead of anyone just starting to dabble in this space.

@jowyang’s “future” looks like this:

“Human-like Relationships:  While on the distant horizon, artificial intelligence agents will simulate human behavior and be a guiding agent, conversationalist, and act like a real world concierge, “

Well, that’s what our “today” looks like.  Brand Agents who guide.

Our blog posts haven’t used the CATEGORY “AI and Twitter” in a heck of a long time.  Nice to dust that off again!

Now, we do respect that there are diverging opinions on this topic, really just specific to use of automation within “social media,” as if it’s a “pure” landscape that should be reserved for “humans only.”  (See the OPINIONS section of the Techcrunch article).

We have the ability to clone or create the “best” customer service bots, who respond instantly, around the clock – and can manage high volumes of concurrent users (and each receives a personalized response).  Compare that to most “human” customer service representatives?  Perhaps most who work  a Brands Twitter account are a bit hipper than those in the Call Centers, but, well, we can add “hip” to our bots.  Do people really care if it’s human or silicon, provided they get what they need?  Quickly?

As humans, we’ve adapted and evolved to accept Human::Machine interaction quite well.  At the grocery, if the line is shorter at the automated check-out, that’s where we go.  Yes, I like a brief chat with the human check-out person, but, nine times out of ten, I head to the automated check-out, who is always friendly and gets me out the door quickly (And I never find someone has put the fresh strawberries at the bottom of the bag).

 

Filed Under: AI and Twitter, AI conversation, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Friendly machines, mobile marketing, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Interactive Scene Engine (Another Way of Looking At Us)

June 4, 2012 by

Introducing our platform to an ad agency executive over the weekend, we spent a fair bit of time “defining” the applications that are built as “interactive scenes.”

Interestingly, that phrase is not one we’d used before, but, it helped (let’s call him “Bob”) Bob quickly understand the contentAI  platform in relation to his other work.

We often talk about “motivated characters” or “virtual characters,” but, what we really do is create “scenes” that both the virtual character and the End User play-out.

So, are we really a “scene engine?”

Yes, in part.

But, we’re still a “virtual character” engine as well.

There are both simple and complex avenues to apply our platform.  We think of “character only” as being akin to chatbots who access a database of deep information via Natural Language Processing.

But, our interactive scenes are 3-dimensional, including  depth (same as “character” – deep data and knowledge), coupled with width (alternative paths) and length (all “scenes” have a beginning, middle and end)

I suspect we’ll start using “interactive scene engine” in some of our description phrasing more frequently.  It seems easier  to grasp than “motivated characters.”

Filed Under: 2nd Screen, Brands and Mobile, Conversational AI, Transmedia Content and AI, Virtual Agents Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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