AI and VoIP - A look at what's coming
2022
Did you go and see the Top Gun remake yet? If you have you may have noticed you weren’t listening to Val Kilmer’s actual voice. Iceman, unable to speak as he did in the 1986 film due to his fight with throat cancer, reprised his previous role but with a voice simulated by AI. Sonantic, the start-up behind this revolutionary technology was recently acquired by Spotify who feel the technology will enable them to engage users in a new and even more personalized way.
Artificial Intelligence is thus no longer just a “buzzword” used by marketing departments. Machine Learning and natural language processing are already being used in several (voice) applications we use daily.
Here are some examples from our industry, now and in the not-too-distant future.
- Intelligent Call Routing
- Interactive Voice Response systems
- Conversational AI
- Predictive Analysis
Intelligent Call Routing is a telecom innovation to increase the efficiency of automated call management and improve the customer experience in call centers. It offers a higher response speed and accuracy in call routing than manual and even digital routing, especially at higher volumes. Artificial intelligence will help to monitor data traffic and will be able to map out and configure the most cost-saving and/or fastest routes live with a focus on quality or cost.
Our interactions with technology will use more natural forms of expression like speaking as opposed to all the current keyboard typing and smartphone tapping. Via Interactive Voice Response systems & Chatbots, Conversational AI will be able to efficiently replace existing systems. By asking a few short questions and analysing your response, the system will be able to quickly refer you to the right contact person, plan a meeting or take pre-programmed actions. If you were already on a call with an agent just before, the AI will recognize your voice so that it can put you back in touch with the same agent. By analysing the speech patterns, the vocabulary used, and the sounds made the AI will predict whether a customer is happy or angry and direct the call to the agent who can best deal with the situation. Not just skill-based routing anymore, here's mood-based routing.
A future of video conferencing without interpreters or assistants, but with real-time translations, transcriptions and meeting summaries done by AI is not so far away. All participants will be able to communicate directly in their mother tongue, while a piece of software ensures that the counterparty can hear the translation in their respective mother tongue. Meeting attendants will automatically be provided recaps of voice conversations, video highlight reels, meeting minutes.
AI-trained algorithms have been proven to mitigate and reduce the impact of spam calls on businesses in combination with new VoIP protocols like STIR/SHAKEN. These self-improving algorithms will become better over time until spam calls are a thing of the past. I for one can’t wait!
Conclusion
These are some key examples of how Artificial Intelligence enhances todays and tomorrow’s business VoIP. The benefits might not be immediately obvious to everyone but the efficiency and potential from the use of AI in VoIP applications are growing exponentially and will continue to do so for the near future.