2021: A VUX World year in review

2021 has been crazy. We haven't quite got over Covid and we're not quite back to normal. In fact, we're almost going back-over here in the UK. But having said that, there's been some tremendous momentum built in the space of conversational AI and NLP.

There's been over $2.8bn (at least) of funding raised by conversational AI and NLP startups and scale ups. Countless acquisitions (more on that later in the week - subscribe below if you aren't already). And a large proportion of companies implementing robust AI solutions in the areas of customer experience, product and marketing. And even more running POCs and pilots behind the scenes, ready to pull the trigger in 2022.

So I though it'd be interesting to have a look at the VUX World podcast and website analytics and pick out the top listened-to episodes and the most well-read articles from VUX World and share them here, in case you missed them.

Top 5 most listened to VUX World podcasts

1. Google CCAI with Antony Passemard. Google had a strong year in 2021 with CCAI. It continued making more vendor partnerships and becoming the default conversational AI solution for contact centre vendors like Mitel and Ujet, whilst deepening relationships with the likes of Genesys. It also released its Insights capability as generally available. We chatted to the then Head of Conversational AI at Google Cloud Platforms, Antony Passemard, about just what all the fuss is about.
2. Hyper-personalised voice AI with Laetitia Cailleteau, Global Lead for Conversational AI at Accenture. Accenture, as with most large consultancies, have really embraced conversational AI as a core strategic priority, often coupling automation initiatives with wider cloud strategy programmes. During the year, we've saw Accenture build its own CAI platform on top of AWS, as well as dabble with GCP (which hasn't happened too much in the past - the 'big fish' tend to prioritise AWS). We spoke to Laetitia Cailleteau, Global Lead for Conversational AI, about how Accenture approaches hyper-personalised voice AI.
3. Voice AI in the contact centre: 2021 trends, with Dan Miller, Opus Research. Dan Miller is one of the most well respected, most knowledgable and experienced analysts in the field of conversational AI. Running Opus Research since the 80's and having worked with some of the top providers of AI technologies, Dan's awareness and perspectives on this industry at a macro and micro level is impressive to say the least. Check out whether Dan's predictions of what 2021 would bring were accurate.
4. Avaya on enterprise AI strategy, with Davide Petramala. Avaya is one of the market-leading contact centre platforms out there, with large enterprises all over the globe running its technology for core business operations. As you'd expect, Avaya has been building its AI capabilities over the years. We sat down with Director of Customer and Partner Onboarding, Davide Petramala, to pick his brains about how Avaya operates and best practice for implementing AI for customer experience improvements at scale.
5. Does voice first suck? And is it stuck? With Bret Kinsella, John Kelvie and Ahmed Bouzid. During 2021, there was some agitation afoot when it comes to voice assistants. Game-changing AI operating system for the new age? Or overhyped radio players? Bespoken's John Kelvie wrote Voice is Stuck, followed by WitLingo's Ahmed Bouzid's Voice First Sucks. Both balanced appraisals of where the voice platforms are in 2021. We put the two of them together, along with Voicebot's Bret Kinsella to debate whether voice really is stuck.

Top 5 most read articles on VUX World

1. Why is Microsoft acquiring Nuance, really? The bigger picture. No surprises that this was the most read article of the year. It was without doubt the biggest news story of the year. However, rather than simple reporting the news, I broke down the likely motivations for Microsoft in purchasing a speech tech giant like Nuance, and how that plays into Microsoft's wider AI and cloud strategy.
2. What is natural language understanding? A beginners guide. An evergreen piece of content that picks up a lot of traffic from search engines. Here, I walk through a simple guide of what NLU is, why it's important and the core elements of it. Required reading for anyone interested in developing their knowledge of NLP-based AI systems or conversation design.
3. Why 'containment rate' is not the best way to measure your chat or voicebot. Another evergreen piece here driving at how the tradition call centre performance metric of 'containment rate' isn't a helpful way of measuring the performance of your conversational AI systems, and what kind of measurement you should use instead.
4. What is SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language)? A beginner’s guide. Another guide here, and further required reading for anyone looking to design voice-based AI systems like voicebots, voice user interfaces or voice assistants. This guide dives deep into SSML: what it is, why it's important, how it's used and its limitations.
5. The ultimate convergence of conversational AI markets and technologies. A in-depth breakdown looking at the growth of conversational AI tooling, technology and markets and a prediction of how (and why) it'll likely converge in future.

I've personally created so many great memories this year. I've worked on some immense projects with some amazing people and companies and am truly grateful for all of the VUX World fans, listeners, guests and readers out there. Thank you.

Looking forward to cracking on with 2022.

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