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Artificial Solutions unveils software toolkit to allow developers to build platform independent intelligent, humanlike conversations into their mobile apps.

Artificial Solutions, the natural language interaction (NLI) specialist that enables users to have a meaningful, humanlike interaction with technology, announced today that it will be unveiling Teneo Toolkit at Mobile World Congress (MWC). With Gartner already predicting that voice will be a disruptive technology to watch in 2012, the Teneo Toolkit will allow developers to easily include Artificial Solutions’ patented technology and enable their mobile apps, software programs or devices think, reason and converse in an intelligent, humanlike manner, regardless of platform, device or language.

Online Virtual AssistantsVirtual Assistants increasingly becoming the first point of contact for users who need help from customer service. However, sometimes it is inevitable that a real customer service agent steps in and deals with the customer query. And here comes the twist; to whom does the service agent turn to when he or she needs help in resolving a question? To a virtual assistant of course!

Virgin Media is the United Kingdom’s leading entertainment and communications company—the first to offer consumers broadband, digital TV, phone and mobile from one company.  Today Virgin Media is the largest Virgin branded company in the world, with almost 13,000 employees and ten million customers across the UK.

noHold, Inc., developer of the most interactive and diagnostic Virtual Assistant technology and Confederated Knowledge, announces that leading companies in Hi-Tech industries like PC, and networking are choosing to connect their Virtual Assistants via Confederated Knowledge.

noHold creates Virtual Assistants for web based self-service that increase customer satisfaction, reduce support costs, and capture actionable customer intelligence. As products and services become increasingly interconnected, the need for support across company boundaries is imperative. Confederated Knowledge or CK, is a patent pending feature that allows one Virtual Assistant to connect with multiple Virtual Assistants. For example: When you have an issue with your PC, it could be related to the security software, a peripheral device or the Internet Service Provider (ISP). CK empowers you to start the conversation on your own terms and get answers from a network of interconnected Virtual Assistants.

First IBM’s Watson beat Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Then Apple captivated mobile consumers with the iPhone 4S, which included an enhanced version of Siri, the voice-driven assistant born at Menlo Park, CA-based SRI International. Suddenly, the idea that computers might be just as good as humans at carrying out certain types of requests seemed a lot less far-fetched.

For companies trying to win corporate and consumer adoption of their own NLP technologies, this is a long-awaited moment. And one of the firms that thinks 2012 could be the year this market really takes off is VirtuOz VirtuOz, Inc., a Paris-born company that moved its headquarters to Emeryville, CA, in 2009.

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales, and support, today announced that it processed a record 166 million conversations in 2011 on behalf of its customers.  This growth was fueled, in part, by expansion of VirtuOz’ client base across multiple verticals including high tech, telecommunications, retail, and consumer packaged goods.  In addition, the company noted the expansion of IVA usage from customer service, to sales and marketing via a growing number of touch points, including mobile phones and social media, such as Facebook.

Mobile devices are playing an increasing role in the lives of millions of people across the world, across all generations. As more and more online technologies deploy into the mobile realm, Virtual Agent technology is following this trend. Apple’s implementation of Siri, the voice-to-text virtual assistant feature they have added to the iPhone 4S, opened the world’s eyes to mobile virtual agent technology. Android also has added Vlingo, a similar feature that combines voice-to-text and voice recognition technology with its powerful “intent engine” to help users complete their desired action.

In a recent release Gartner predicted its top ten disruptive technologies for 2012. Amongst the expected and rather predictable media tablets, app stores and cloud computing, Gartner says that icons, menus and pointers will be replaced by mobile-centric interfaces such as gesture, voice and search. But voice isn’t everything. For it to be a successful method of interaction, voice needs an underlying intelligence.

The goal of psychology is to predict and control behavior. It is the same goal we have as knowledge engineers. This may sound somewhat Orwellian, but it is not about sinister machinations. In Artificial Solutions, we want to do everything possible to help users of our Teneo virtual assistants (VAs) quickly and conveniently find the way to the information they need. Since a VA is typically designed to answer a specific set of queries, we have a clear idea of which content should be covered. For example, it’s reasonable to expect that a VA on a bank’s website will be asked questions about banking, hence it will need to be an expert on transactions such as opening accounts and transferring money, but it is not reasonable to expect it to advise you which sofa to buy with the check you write. Anna knows every item that IKEA sells, but will be puzzled if you try to borrow money from her.

On the Beach, founded in 1995, is one of the UK’s leading online travel agencies offering value for money summer holidays to the world’s most popular beach destinations. Customers can choose from 50 million available flight seats and more than 30,000 hotels around the world and take advantage of a selection of other travel products such as car hire, insurance and resort transfers.

The Challenge:

In 2010 On the Beach were planning the launch of a new website. As part of that project they wanted to find a way to reduce administration calls to their after sales department and, in return, minimise the call waiting times for clients to improve their overall customer experience. They determined that a Virtual Assistant from Creative Virtual would be the best way to position their business at the forefront of emerging technology and, most importantly, improve their customer service efficiency and effectiveness.