on August 9, 2020 at 4:25 pm

This weeks roundtable discussion focuses on the top voice AI news from the first half of 2020. We, of course, talk about COVID-19 and how that is changing adoption patterns or the industry. Plus we discuss smart speaker adoption figures, the voice app ecosystems and whether there is a voice app winter underway, the rise of custom assistants, a shift to mobile, and more.

Guests this week include Theo Lau, founder of Unconventional Ventures, Katherine Prescott, founder of Voicebrew, and Jan Knig, co-founder of Jovo. Unconventional Ventures is a firm that focuses on banking and has a lot of crossover with voice and AI among other financial services technologies. Theo is also an advisor to Bond.ai and is the former director for market innovation at AARP. Earlier in her career, she worked with voice and data products and services at Nextel and Teligent. Theo earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from RPI and an MS from George Washington University.

VoiceBrew is a daily newsletter that teaches consumers how to get more out of their Alexa-enabled devices. Previously, Katherine was a senior vice president of corporate strategy at Highbridge Capital Management and an analyst to Morgan Stanley focusing on M&A. She earned a BS in economics at Harvard.

Jovo provides a cross-platform development framework for voice apps and technologies. Jan is also an entrepreneur partner at Etribes and was a product manager at Blue Yonder. He earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Industrial Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

You can listen to the podcast interview above, on Google or Apple Podcasts or most of the leading podcast players.

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Bret is founder, CEO, and research director of Voicebot.ai. He was named commentator of the year by the Alexa Conference in 2019 and is widely cited in media and academic research as an authority on voice assistants and AI. He is also the host of the Voicebot Podcast and editor of the Voice Insider newsletter.

Originally posted here:

Top Voice AI Stories in the First Half of 2020 with Lau, Prescott and Knig - Voicebot Podcast Ep 162 - Voicebot.ai