VUX World

Cars are becoming one of the most competitive frontiers in AI, and most people don’t realise how complex it really is.

In this episode, we’re joined by BalaKrishna Kolluru, Senior Director of AI at Cerence, the company powering conversational AI in over 500 million vehicles worldwide. With over 25 years of experience in machine learning and speech recognition, Bala brings deep insights into how generative AI is transforming the in-vehicle experience.

We explore how voice AI in vehicles has evolved from basic command-and-control systems to sophisticated conversational interfaces powered by hybrid cloud-edge architectures. Bala...

What does it really take to build AI that can resolve customer support at scale reliably, safely, and with measurable business impact?

We explore how Intercom has evolved from a traditional customer support platform into an AI-first company, with its AI assistant, Fin, now resolving 65% of customer queries without human intervention. Intercom's Chief AI Officer, Fergal Reid, discusses the company's journey from natural language understanding (NLU) systems to their current retrieval augmented generation (RAG) approach, explaining how they've optimised every component of their AI pipeline with custom-built models.

The conversation covers Intercom's unique...

In this episode, Joe Kim, the new CEO of DRUID AI, unpacks what might be the biggest shift in technology since the internet.

We discuss the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and its growing impact on businesses. Joe, who has been in his role for 70 days, brings fresh perspectives on how DRUID AI positioned itself as a workflow automation platform years before the market caught up, a bet that's now paying off as companies move beyond AI experimentation into real implementation.

The discussion covers the current state of the AI market, including the...

Everyone's slapping 'agentic' on their AI products, but what does that even mean? Anne Jenkins, Vice President of Solution Architecture at Teneo, helps us separate substance from buzzwords.

In this episode, Anne shares her expertise on agentic AI and the evolution of conversational AI technologies. We explore what truly makes an AI ‘agentic’ versus the marketing hype all over your LinkedIn feed and beyond. Anne explains why Teneo's hybrid approach, combining traditional NLU capabilities with large language models, creates more reliable, cost-effective, and latency-friendly solutions than pure LLM implementations.

We also discuss the chal...

Once switched off during busy periods, Lloyds Banking Group’s chatbot now handles more than 15 million conversations a year. Learn what it really takes to build AI solutions that customers trust with their money. 

We sit down with Cainan Wright, Senior Product Owner, and John Young, AI Lead - Chatbots and Generative AI, from Lloyds Banking Group, to explore their remarkable nine-year journey in building one of the UK's most successful banking chatbots. From handling 3 million conversations in 2021 to over 15 million in 2025, they share the hard-earned lessons of transforming a rather "unloved" virtual assistant into a mis...

In this episode, we dive into the art and science of context engineering with Martin Cross, President of Connect, a company that empowers enterprises to transform through the use of AI and automation.

Martin shares how most businesses still approach AI with a technology-first mindset, deploying solutions before clearly defining the customer problem they’re solving. He explains why successful AI experiences begin with understanding the user journey, designing the right interaction, and then selecting the appropriate tools, not the other way around.

We explore different layers of context - from session-level to jo...

Voice AI is having a breakthrough moment. With large language models delivering unprecedented understanding and next-gen text-to-speech achieving near-human fidelity, the possibilities for immersive, scalable, and personalised customer experiences are greater than ever.

We’re joined by Andrei Papancea (CEO & Co-Founder, NLX) and Kylan Gibbs (CEO & Co-Founder, Inworld), who break down how their companies are working together, making studio-quality voice experiences accessible to developers and enterprises at scale.

The conversation traces how voice technology has progressed from basic assistants to today’s lifelike AI voices. We also discuss the shift from brand voices to b...

What happens when one of the world’s leading analysts on customer service and conversational technologies sits down to unpack the future of AI?

We explore the profound implications of AI adoption with Ian Jacobs, VP, Lead Analyst at Opus Research. We discuss how AI is transforming contact centres and customer service operations, from agent augmentation to process automation. 

Ian shares insights on how businesses are navigating the balance between AI efficiency and human empathy, including the fascinating concept of when non-empathetic AI might actually be the more empathetic choice for customers in cer...

Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI platforms is back in 2025! This is a must-watch for CX leaders seeking to make informed decisions about their AI tech stack.

Here, we provide deep technology market analysis for artificial intelligence in customer experience. Whether you're looking to build AI chatbots, AI agents, Retrieval Augmented Generation applications, these conversational AI platforms are the best of breed.

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As one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, Toyota is giving its machines a voice using AI as a trusted partner to transform how cars are built and serviced.

In this episode, we speak with Kordel France, Principal AI Engineer & AI Architect at Toyota, to uncover how artificial intelligence is reshaping production and maintenance globally.

We explore how Toyota has moved from technicians spending hours sifting through thousands of pages of manuals to intelligent systems that can diagnose faults in seconds and even predict breakdowns before they happen. Kordel explains the technical ar...

The AI arms race in customer experience just got serious. We’re joined by industry legends Nerys Corfield (Injection Consulting), Jon Arnold (J Arnold & Associates), and Henry Iversen (boost.ai) to unpack one of the biggest AI moves in recent memory: NiCE’s $955M acquisition of Cognigy.

We break down what this deal means for the future of AI-first contact centres, the fate of best-in-class point solutions, and the broader shift toward an AI-led customer experience strategy. From questions of market consolidation and vendor lock-in to the culture clash between product-led innovation and marketing muscle, we shar...

From the hype cycle around AI to the real-world constraints enterprises face when adopting new tech, we explore the opportunities shaping the future of business communications in this episode.  

We’re joined by Jon Arnold, an independent tech analyst, for a conversation about the shifting landscape of enterprise communications. We talk about analysts' unique role in shaping vendor strategy and market perception. 

We discuss the current state of business communications technology, examining what Jon describes as the "three-legged stool" of cloud communications: CCaaS, CPaaS, and UCaaS. We discuss how these previously distinct domains are...

In this episode of VUX World, we chat with Kellin Sjoerds and Ricky Wekker, Conversational AI Engineers at Essent - the Netherlands’ largest utility provider and part of the E.ON Group to uncover the story behind their groundbreaking agent assist tool, Bolt.

Bolt is an AI-powered agent copilot that has transformed Essent’s call centre operations, shaving an average of 60 seconds off every call and delivering over €1.8 million in savings, not through layoffs, but by reducing dependence on BPOs.

We unpack the full journey behind Essent’s AI copilot, Bolt, starting with a simple...

As generative AI redefines the contact centre, ensuring consistent performance across complex telephony networks becomes mission-critical. 

In this episode, we speak with Satish Barot, CTO at Klearcom, about the evolution of contact centre technology and the critical role of quality assurance in AI voice systems. 

We explore how organisations gradually transition from traditional DTMF-based IVR systems to more sophisticated conversational AI and generative AI solutions. Satish shares insights on why this shift is happening incrementally, with many companies adopting hybrid approaches that run traditional and AI-powered systems side by side while they evaluate pe...

74% of CEOs think their jobs are on the line because of AI. Not because AI might replace them, but because failing to implement it successfully could cost them everything.

Merlin Bise, CTO of Inbenta and former Head of Technology at a firm acquired by the London Stock Exchange, joins us to share how Inbenta is helping enterprises modernise their customer experience. 

Merlin explains that so many AI deployments fail, not because the technology is lacking, but because companies often bet on the wrong frameworks, overlook data foundations, or underestimate the importance of testing. 

In this special episode, recorded live at Boost Camp, we have three industry leaders who are shaping the future of conversational AI: Ben Maxim, CTO at Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), Åse Marthinsen, who leads generative AI at Norway’s largest bank, DNB and Nick Mitchell, Chief Revenue Officer at boost.ai.

We cover the ever-changing landscape of conversational AI, including aligning teams, integrating data across channels and designing experiences that are on brand and human-centric.

We look at how organisations are managing thousands of conversational intents with lea...

In this episode, we explore how True Classic, a men's apparel brand, is leveraging AI to transform its customer support with Jordan Gesky, Senior Customer Experience Manager.

We look at True Classic’s journey from rule-based automation to generative AI across multiple channels. Jordan talks about how their AI assistant, Crue, now handles customer service inquiries through chat, email and phone channels and how that’s reduced costs and time to resolve.

We get into the practicalities of AI in customer service, including continuous auditing, clear guidelines and giving AI a brand voice. Jord...

In this episode, we talk to Guillaume Laporte, Chief AI Officer at Foundever - a $4 billion BPO giant with 150,000 employees worldwide. Guillaume explains the massive impact of generative AI on the BPO industry, why it’s the biggest threat and the biggest opportunity for contact centres today.

From deciding whether to buy, build or partner on AI solutions to navigating multiple client systems and languages, Guillaume shares how Foundever is transforming its workforce with AI-powered tools like EverAssist. Guillaume also explains why Foundever built its own internal version of ChatGPT rather than licensing OpenAI’s solution, savi...

Generative AI has changed everything - from how we build to how we design. In this episode, we’re joined by Alex Shin, Senior Product Designer at Prudential Financial, to talk about how UX is evolving in the age of LLMs.

Alex shares his journey from studying Social Policy to UX and conversation design, including how he helped launch Prudential’s first customer-facing chatbot in 2022.

We talk about how Prudential’s NLU-based chatbot is consistently getting customer satisfaction scores above industry standards and how the company is exploring generative AI solutions for both intern...

What if the most exciting AI agent innovation isn’t happening in the enterprise, but in the mid-market?

In this episode, we unpack Voiceflow’s explosive growth, the shift from flowcharts to frameworks, and why success today isn’t about having the smartest model, but about how you deploy it.

We explore how to build reliable, production-grade agents, the rise of self-improving systems, and the emergence of agent-to-agent orchestration.

And while mid-market companies are moving fast, Braden explains why enterprise adoption is inevitable, and what it’ll take to reach that tip...

In this episode, Kane Simms is joined by Katherine Munro, Conversational AI Engineer at Swisscom, for a deep dive into what might sound like an odd pairing: using LLMs to classify customer intents.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are powerful, multi-purpose tools. But would you trust one to handle the precision of a classification task?

It’s an unlikely fit for an LLM. Classifiers typically need to be fast, accurate, and interpretable. LLMs are slow, random black-boxes. Classifiers need to output a single label. LLMs never stop talking.

And yet, there ar...

In this episode, Kane is joined by Sonia Ingram, Global Director of AI at Pandora, to explore what it really takes to develop AI maturity in a global business.

Many organisations aiming to get started with AI and generative AI often focus on short-term, point solutions to specific problems. This emergent strategy often led from the grassroots to solve siloed departmental pain points can work for proof of value. But it rarely scales.

For example, a chatbot that handles returns brilliantly may not be equipped or supported to drive sales conversations. If the...

In this episode, we chat with Andrei Papancea, CEO and Co-Founder of NLX, to cut through the noise and get real about where AI in the enterprise is delivering value, and where it's not.

Andrei brings a refreshing dose of grounded perspective as the buzz around ‘agentic AI’ and generative everything reaches fever pitch. Instead of chasing trends or slapping AI onto every process, NLX is laser-focused on practical outcomes: real problems, solved efficiently, and with the right tech. 

We explore the challenges enterprise leaders face when navigating a market bloated with hype: inter...

In this VUX World podcast episode with Kerry Phillipson, she reveals how Arriva Group transforms customer experience using cutting-edge AI technology. Learn how they're creating a virtual assistant that's not just another chatbot, but a smart, personable travel companion that understands your journey needs.

Kerry shares with us how Arriva is driving AI innovation within the transportation sector. She explains how artificial intelligence is used to tackle real customer pain points, making travel smoother and more intuitive. The conversation also dives into what it takes to design an AI with a genuine personality one that feels...

In this episode on the VUX World podcast, we chat all about the innovative AI journey of Citizens Advice with Stuart Pearson.

We discover how a nonprofit organisation is revolutionising customer support through Caddy, an intelligent AI assistant that reduces average handle time by 50% while maintaining a rigorous ethical approach.

Stuart shares the meticulous process of developing an internal AI tool that supports contact centre agents, highlighting the importance of responsible AI implementation.

From initial challenges with chatbots to creating a sophisticated AI solution, this podcast reveals how organisations can leverage...

In this episode, we dive deep into how NatWest uses generative AI to reshape customer service at scale, with Mark Worden, Strategy & Innovation Lead for Cora at NatWest.

We explore how one of the UK’s biggest banks is building AI-driven customer journeys that are smarter, faster, and more efficient. From traditional NLU-based bots to cutting-edge Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, Mark shares how Cora Plus achieves up to 99% accuracy and drastically reduces handoffs to human agents.

Mark takes us inside NatWest’s pilot process - from narrowing 500 web pages down to a cura...

AI is changing how businesses talk to customers, but how do you move beyond the hype and make AI work for your business? In this episode, we chat with Chafik Abdellaoui, Workforce and Quality Manager at Autodesk, about how AI is used in sales and customer experience and the real results.

Autodesk is leveraging AI to analyse calls, generate follow-up emails and improve CRM data. AI is being used to make sales teams more efficient and effective. Chafik explains how AI is automating low-value tasks so sales reps can focus on what really matters: building relationships...

In this episode, Panos Karagiannis, CEO of Moveo.AI, joins us to explore how AI has been reshaping business automation. Panos shares invaluable insights into what it takes to build production-ready AI agents, from scaling AI solutions across industries to navigating the complexities of enterprise adoption.

We also dive deep into the real-world applications of Gen AI, the buy vs. build debate for enterprises, and the challenges of differentiation in a world where many businesses use the same foundational AI models. Plus, we discuss why quality assurance is the unsung hero of AI implementation and how...

AI has made incredible strides, but is it truly user-friendly? In this episode, UX legend Jakob Nielsen joins VUX World to discuss why AI usability still lags behind and what needs to change. As the founder of UX Tigers and a pioneer in usability with 41 years of experience, Nielsen has shaped the field with groundbreaking contributions, including heuristic evaluation, Jakob’s Law, and the 10 usability heuristics. He has authored eight best-selling books, holds 79 patents, and was named “the king of usability” by Internet Magazine and “the guru of Web page usability" by The New York Times.

We explo...

This is an interview with Ronald Ashri, Co-Founder of OpenDialog. We discuss the evolving landscape of conversational AI. Ron shares how OpenDialog has progressed since our last conversation in 2021, highlighting the transformative impact of large language models and generative AI on the enterprise automation space.

We dive into the nuances of defining "AI agents", calling out the hype and misuse of the term and putting a few of the well-known tech companies on the chopping block! We chat about how OpenDialog leverages AI agent-based abstractions and goal-driven architectures to build more reliable and effective conversational systems...

In this podcast with Sarah Haider, Digital Manager for Conversational AI at Salzburg AG, we explore the journey of revolutionising customer interactions with AI. From the early days of NLU-based chatbots to embracing generative AI and retrieval-augmented generation technology, Sarah outlines the challenges and breakthroughs in enhancing Salzburg AG’s digital assistant capabilities.

Chapters:

00:00: Introduction to Sarah Haider and Salzburg AG

05:23: Why is AI appealing for the energy industry?

08:32: The history of AI at Salzburg AG

12:00: Measuring success pre-generative AI

16:25: Goals of exploring generative AI

...

From the rise of ChatGPT to the death of intent classification, Alan shares insights into how modern AI systems, like Rasa's CALM approach, are reshaping enterprise workflows and user experiences.

Alan shares how Rasa's innovative platform integrates large language models with structured business logic, and is able to deliver robust, reliable, and natural conversations. Alan highlights the balance between deterministic workflows and flexible AI, debunking myths about agentic AI and discussing the critical role of context and understanding.

This episode is packed with actionable insights and a visionary outlook on where the industry is...

This episode features Noam Fine, co-founder and CEO of Hear.ai. Noam is a serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, having most recently founded Over.ai, which was acquired by Vonage in 2019.

In this conversation, we delve into the transformative potential of generative AI in the contact center. Not for automating conversations with customers, but for turning these conversations into insights. Insights that can lead to tremendous improvements in customer experience, and business growth.

We explore how generative AI can enable new mindsets and move beyond incremental improvements, fundamentally reshaping the way organisations approach...

Join us as we dive into the evolving landscape of customer experience with Alannah Martin, Value Owner at Ovo Energy.

From applying Lean Six Sigma principles to tackling inefficiencies, to scaling conversational AI for real-world impact, we explore how technology and human-centric design drive innovation in service industries. Discover the secrets behind successful chatbots, operational alignment, and reducing cognitive load for both customers and employees.

Whether you’re a CX enthusiast or an automation advocate, this episode is packed with actionable insights and forward-thinking strategies for the new age of customer engagement.

Mike Myer is the CEO and Co-Founder of Quiq, the generative AI conversational automation platform that's been making noise in recent months, with a flurry of genAI use cases in production with a whole host of enterprise brands. Mike joins me to discuss where we are with agentic AI adoption and trends he's observed in 2024 as well as forecasted trends and considerations for 2025.

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Every big tech company is working on foundational generative AI models and promises that the future will be different. Yet…

Large Enterprises have generative AI policies in place now that prohibit the usage of the technology. There is a gap in the middle on an opportunity emerging surrounding quality assurance and governance for generative AI applications that will enable the technology to meet its potential whilst satisfying the concerns of enterprise.

The company that is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this is Cyara. So I sat down with CEO Rishi Rana to di...

Generative AI is often marketed as a magical tool—just upload your data and let the model do the heavy lifting. But the reality is far from simple. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) doesn’t work without thoughtful preparation, clear strategy, and, most importantly, quality content.

In this episode, we dive deep into the critical role content plays in the success of AI systems like RAG. Join us as we speak with seasoned content strategists and AI industry experts who have been on the frontlines of managing and optimizing knowledge bases for AI use cases. We’ll explore why th...

Dmitry is the CEO of MindStudio, an AI automation platform that's raised $36m in funding to bring AI automation into the hands of businesses. With a background at Google and ServiceNow, Dmitry has a wealth of experience in building product teams that delivery immense value. He joins me today to share how MindStudio is enabling AI transformation across the board.

This episode is sponsored by Intel® Core Ultra processors and the Intel vPro® platform. Elevate your business with AI-powered PCs from Intel full of enhanced features like improved productivity, enhanced battery life, and integrated Arc graphics.​

Join us as Stephan Schuessler dives into the exciting world of AI in the enterprise. In this discussion, we explore how to effectively launch AI initiatives within organizations, navigating the challenges that often arise. Whether you're just starting your AI journey or looking to optimize existing projects, this conversation will provide actionable strategies for driving AI adoption and long-term success in the enterprise.

This episode is sponsored by Intel® Core Ultra processors and the Intel vPro® platform. Elevate your business with AI-powered PCs from Intel full of enhanced features like improved productivity, enhanced battery life, and in...

Jeremy Kahn has reported extensively on #technology and business covering #AI for the last years, first at Bloomberg and currently at #Fortune with excellent contacts across the field. Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, by Kahn, is a timely exploration of the transformative impact of #ChatGPT and the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence. We chat about AI's potential to disrupt industries, reshape society, and challenge our understanding of human intelligence. As AI becomes an integral part of our world, Kahn's expertise offers a crucial perspective on navigating both its benefits and risks.

This...

Martyn Redstone is a long-standing member of the conversational AI community and is the Founder of Bot-Jobs.com, the go-to jobs board for AI. Martyn joins me to share some new insights on the conversational AI jobs market, the impact that generative AI is having in the #recruitment space and some examples of use cases and value being explored in the sector. Bot Jobs

This episode is sponsored by Intel® Core Ultra processors and the Intel vPro® platform. Elevate your business with AI-powered PCs from Intel full of enhanced features like improved productivity, enhanced battery life, an...

Nick Allgaier is the Product Manager for Digital Assistants and Conversational AI at Lufthansa Group, and has taken the Lufthansa AI program from zero to 10 million interactions per year over chat, with more than 1 million interactions per year on voice. Nick joins me to share his learnings on scaling an AI practice to extraordinary heights. 

We cover Lufthansa’s journey and where it all began, right through to how it's operating at scale today. You’ll learn how Lufthansa is utilising generative AI and the specific use cases it’s working well for, with some of the num...

In this episode, we explore the rapidly evolving world of #AI processors; the firepower that makes everything from training, inference and processing possible. We’ll uncover what makes these AI processors so unique and crucial in today’s tech landscape. From CPUs, GPUs and NPUs to Intel’s latest innovations. Learn how these chips work, the importance they have, and why they’re in such high demand globally. Featuring exclusive insights from leading experts at Intel, this podcast is your gateway to understanding the silicon that’s shaping our future.

This episode is sponsored by Intel® Core Ultra...

WellSaid is at the forefront of AI-generated voices and has been proving bleeding edge voice technology since late 2018. Brain took over as CEO in January 2024 and is leading the charge to scale WellSaid to new heights. Brian joins me to discuss the voice generation market, use cases, ethics surrounding voice cloning and where all this is headed.

Check out WellSaid

Be sure to read about 'A tech firm stole our voices - then cloned and sold them'

WellSaid Labs Creates NPR’s First AI Podcast Episode

Go ba...

In this episode of Agony Agent, Ben McCulloch welcomes conversation design experts Ilana Meir and Peter Isaacs to tackle pressing issues faced by conversation AI designers. Ilana, a freelance conversation designer with extensive experience in AR, VR, and healthcare, and Peter, a senior conversation design advocate at Voiceflow, share insights on improving bot interactions, overcoming organisational challenges, and leveraging large language models (LLMs).

Key topics include how to navigate archaic systems when designing seamless user experiences, managing sentiment analysis in conversation design, and balancing the demands of impulsive sales teams with technical developers. They also discuss...

Martin Musiol is the founder of Generativeai.net, an online learning platforms that teaches data scientists and others about generative AI. Martin joins me to chat about his experience and the value of generative AI for businesses.

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Today I'm joined by one of the founding team members of Google Assistant and all round AI legend, Vlad Vuskovic.

Vlad has been instrumental in Google's AI efforts from a product management perspective and joins us to share more on the AI tools and capabilities Google offers enterprises, as well as some practical advice for implementing successfully based on years of experience in the field.

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Cooper Johnson is a Voice UX Designer at Gridspace, one of the leading voice AI technology companies. Cooper joins us to share his perspectives on how generative AI is and has impacted the voice UI landscape. Cooper will share insights into what's changed, what's stayed the same and advice on how to design voice AI agents that work properly!

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Falene McKenna is arguably the most charismatic member of the conversation design community. With a wealth of experience in conversation design particularly as it pertains to robots!

Falene join me to share lessons learned in designing conversations for robots and specifically about the uncanny valley: what it is, why it matters and whether we can or should cross it.

Visit Falenes LinkedIn

Check out Lingua Robotica

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Richard Smullen is the CEO of Pypestream, an AI automation platform making waves with its approach to design and operationalising conversational experiences.

Tune in to find out why CSAT and NPS are dead, why happiness should be your true north KPI, the future of the contact centre and what we’ll do with all the jobless call centre workers **grits teeth**. Learn the 4 missing pieces of your AI strategy and why you’re struggling to fill them.

Myself and Richard share so many similar perspectives on how to do AI right in the ente...

The loveholidays AI team join us to share their lessons learned from implementing the award-winning AI assistant, Sandy.

Eugene Neale, Director of Business IT and CX Engineering, and Tom Smith, Telecommunications Operations Manager at loveholidays, the UK's fastest growing and largest online travel agent, share use cases, lessons learned and best practices from years spent designing and building Sandy with Google DialogFlow.

Subscribe to https://vux.world/subscribe for weekly updates on how to implement AI effectively in your organisation.

Unparsed, the world's most loved conversational AI conference returns with...

Hazel Savage is the VP Music Intelligence at SoundCloud and the founder of Musiio; a tech company using AI to make music easier to catalogue and find.

Hazel joins us to discuss the role of AI in music, the opportunities, challenges and future.

Subscribe to https://vux.world/subscribe for weekly updates on how to implement AI effectively in your organisation.

Unparsed, the world's most loved conversational AI conference returns with more punch, more passion and more impact! Buy your tickets now here - https://www.unparsedconf.com/

...

Ricardo Herreros Symons is the VP Corporate Development and Strategy at AI speech to text company, Speechmatics.

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OpenAI GPT4o: What's new and what's the impact on CX? Today I'm joined by Marc Bernstein, CEO, Balto, to discuss the new updates from OpenAI, GPT-4o, and what it means for the future of CX.

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From the granular details of measuring intent and LLM-based chatbot effectiveness to the strategic implementation of AI across business units, Eric provides an in-depth analysis on the importance of data-driven decisions in the era of AI transformation.

Join us as we discuss how businesses can leverage analytics to optimise customer interactions, the common pitfalls in current AI strategies, and the future of AI in customer service.

In this episode

00:00 Introduction and UNPARSED conference - Find out more at https://unparsedconf.com

4:32 Welcom Eric Griffing

7:25 Best...

Ofer Ronen is an ex-Googler with some immense experience in deploying AI systems for large enterprises including the infamous example of Agent Assist at Verizon. Ofer’s third startup is tomato.ai, a company that has AI technology that’ll strip away your accent! Or soften it, rather.

Ofer joins us to share his lessons learned from years of deploying AI in the enterprise, as well as the use cases, value and technicalities of this new breed of AI technology: voice filtering and accent softening.

Unparsed, the world's most loved conversational AI conference retu...

Chris Ezekiel is founder and CEO of one of the longest standing conversational AI platforms, Creative Virtual. Chris joins us to discuss the changing landscape of conversational AI and the recipe for longevity and long term success.

Unparsed, the world's most loved conversational AI conference returns with more punch, more passion and more impact! Buy your tickets now here - https://www.unparsedconf.com/

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How can AI make your job search easier? I'm joined by Head of Product - Conversations at Total Jobs Group, Somnath Biswas to discuss.

Som has immense experience in project management and AI and knows what it takes to make AI work at scale. He joins me to share some lessons in implementing conversational AI in a highly stressful and emotional situation: the job search.

Do customers want this? What conversations do they want and need? How can you make sure you can serve those needs at scale? What people, process and technology...

This immersion into the world of contact centre technology coupled with extensive operational experience has formed the backdrop to Nerys carrying out regular Contact Centre audits, Delivering Transformation programmes; Judging prestigious awards like the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards; Chairing the DMA Contact Centre Council for 3 years and being a regular on the webinar, keynote and podcast circuit talking all things Contact Centre.

00:00 Introduction

02:00 Welcome Nerys

05:30 Managing contact centres - what did they get right?

07:40 Barriers to getting things right

12:00 Mandating self service options

16:25...

Join us for a thought-provoking episode of VUX World, with Brandon Nott, CPO, Amelia, and Nick Orlando, Director of Product, Amelia. Amelia is an enterprise conversational AI platform at the forefront of integrating Generative AI (GenAI) within the AI ecosystem.

We'll dive into how GenAI revolutionises dialog systems for transactional tasks, emphasising its role as a tool that, when combined with classical AI, unlocks unparalleled efficiency and creativity. We will cover the essentials of deploying conversational interfaces, the strategic balance between GenAI and classic platforms, and the nuanced decisions behind selecting the right mix of AI...

Scott Hamilton is the Principle, Banking and Lending Strategy Leader at Prodigal Tech, an actionable intelligence platform for consumer finance.

Scott's background is in lead six sigma and joins me to speak about why for most organisations, your AI automation journey is in fact one of process design and how lean six sigma can help businesses create the automation strategies they're dreaming of!

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Join us on VUX World for an enlightening episode with Ian Robertson from the Forum, where we delve into the dynamic world of Customer Experience (CX). In this discussion, we'll explore the critical successes and oversights of today's CX leaders, unraveling the common challenges and emerging trends that are shaping the industry. A key focus will be on speech analytics and its interplay with AI - understanding its potential, limitations, and why it hasn't yet become a mainstream tool. We'll discuss the importance of linking what customers say to their actions and outcomes, emphasizing the need to start with...

Pete Kemp is a Principle Consultant at FSP, a consulting firm aimed at accelerating digital transformation for brands. Pete was previously the Managing Director of EBM, an enterprise conversational AI platform providing AI automation technology and services. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the practicalities of implementing AI at scale and now works pretty much exclusively with implementing Microsoft Copilot within large enterprises.

This episode is all about the lessons learned from this journey of enabling large brands with Microsoft Copilot.

For those that might not know, Microsoft announced Copilot...

Byron Reese is a serial entrepreneur with a quarter-century of experience building and running successful technology companies, with multiple acquisitions, IPOs and patents along the way. He is an award-winning author of books such as Stories, Dice and Rocks That Think, and; The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity, a book that tackles artificial intelligence, robots, automation, and the future of work. He’s a speaker and futurist, with a strong conviction that technology will help bring about a new golden age of humanity.

Byron currently serves as the CEO of JJ...

What can we expect from AI over the next 12 months? What kind of use cases will make it to production and add value? What will the impact be for businesses that leverage it? What will be the challenges and hurdles we’ll need to overcome to make it work? And what does one of the market leading AI automation platforms plan to do about it?

Join me as I speak with the CEO of Cognigy, Philipp Heltewig, and dive into the year ahead in AI..

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Liz Stokoe is an author and professor at the London School of Economics

Register for our upcoming webinar here - https://vux.world/generative-ai-in-production-loops-success-story/

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A few months ago we reached out to conversation designers to ask what challenges they struggle with. The idea had come from a conversation with Ilana Meir at Unparsed, who thought an ‘agony aunt’ for Conversation Designers could be useful and fun, just like Dear Abby helps people with personal problems. 

Why would we want that? Well, this role isn’t well defined. We have some trailblazers in the industry to inspire us, and we have some great books and courses, but still there’s a lot of questions that a conversation designer might not be able to a...

What a wild year it’s been in AI. Every second minute, there’s a news story. If it’s not Open AI burning down, then reassembling, it’s more funding, more breakthroughs, more products and more capabilities. Businesses across the world have finally woken up to the disruptive potential of AI, but what are they doing about it?

I’m joined by Frank Schneider, AI Evangelist, Verint, to run through some of the highlights of the year, appraise the AI Naughty and Nice List and discuss the past, present and future potential of AI in the enterp...

First, CEO Sam Altman was fired from Open AI. Then, VP Greg Brockman fled. They both then joined Microsoft and now, news is coming out about 710 staff petitioning the board, threatening to resign and join Microsoft if the board don't leave!

I'm joined by Matt Taylor, CPO, Knowbl to dive into what's going on. Also, Matt will share some new research and techniques to help enterprises make the most of large language models.

Enter one of the worlds biggest AI awards – We’re proud to support the AI World Series Awards and Conference. An u...

JP is the Co-Founder and CTO of SmartBots, a platform that's making the most of Amazon Bedrock Foundation Models and enabling developers and brands to build generative AI applications. Find out about the biggest opportunities and considerations for brands seeking to use generative AI in customer experience, as well as how you can use the SmartBots platform to accomplish just that.

Enter one of the worlds biggest AI awards – We’re proud to support the AI World Series Awards and Conference. An unrivaled celebration of the best use cases of AI - https://aiworldseries.com/

Andrew Moorhouse has worked with the world’s leading consulting firms and household name brands to understand what’s really going on with CX performance. Is live chat really all it’s cracked up to be? Is NPS any good? Can it be predicted based on common conversational markers? What should you really be focusing on in order to move the needle with your customer experience automation programmes? Andrew shares all.

Enter one of the worlds biggest AI awards – We’re proud to support the AI World Series Awards and Conference. An unrivaled celebration of the best use ca...

Mara Cairo, Product Owner at Amii, joins me to chat about how businesses be thinking about AI, how you should be implementing it, what your blind spots and challenges are likely to be and how to develop your AI literacy.

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Vist Amii

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Gartner recently forecast that by 2025, 50% of digital communications will be driven by AI avatars. A company that's been using AI avatars for years to deliver AI-mediated healthcare services is Sensley.

Co-Founder and CEO, Adam Odessky, joins me to share the pros and cons of AI-mediated Avatars, as well as the Sensley story, AI in healthcare case studies and the shape of the AI market in healthcare.

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Ronald Rubens, CEO, Sentio CX joins us to share the current issues with live agent escalations and how Sentio CX AI-based routing is helping make sure that every AI agent conversation that requires escalation to live humans, is done so efficiently and effectively.

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It’s common for teams to have both programmers and conversation designers. You need both to get a solid result. They’re both aiming to create the same thing (a robust conversation with a machine) but they approach that from different angles. 

While the programmer ensures that the software is solid, and has all the right connections, the conversation designer needs to make sure that it is purpose designed for the people who will use it. Both of those roles are vital.

I wanted to get a better understanding of what a programmer think...

Tim Friebel is the Global Experience Transformation Lead at Genesys and brings a wealth of experience in customer journey analytics; a crucial and underserved element of conversational automation. Tim joins me to share the insights and tips that'll help you understand your customers better and improve customer experience using customer journey analytics.

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Kim West is the Director of Product Marketing at Uniphore, one of the leading conversational automation technology and service companies. Kim joins us to share some of the top use cases for conversational automation across industries and shares some best practice in getting it right.

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You've seen and heard of the value of conversational AI such as chat, voice and messaging assistants for customer service, but what about using the channel as part of your content strategy? We're joined by Nick Martin, co-founder, Direqt, to discuss how media and entertainment companies are embracing messaging as a core part of their content delivery offering, and how you can too.

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Sham Aziz, Selfridges, Head of Customer Service at Selfridges and long-time customer experience expert, joins me to share his perspectives on the current and future trajectory of AI for customer experience and enterprise automation.

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Designers love to talk design. Often people focus on their favourite tools, processes, hacks and gripes. It all matters. The technical aspects are just as important as well. We’re designing conversations with technology - we need to get intimate with the benefits and limitations of machines so that we can succeed.

What about the social/collaborative side of the job though? We all know that’s a huge part of the job, but so few people seem to be talking about it.

That’s why Millani Jayasingkam is such a great person to tal...

Are we coming to the end of the hype cycle with Large Language Models? Are we finally finding where they fit best in enterprise automation? Are are we still rolling through the hype? Matt Taylor, Co-Founder and CPO, Knowbl, joins us to shine a light

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Braden Ream is back on VUX World for the third time after some pretty big changes at Voiceflow. Raising another round of funding and repositioning the platform in light of significant adoption in the wake of the large language model attention, has Voiceflow making moves to become the leading conversational AI platform.

I chat to Braden about the new direction of the company, the recent additions to the product and how designers and developers are using Voiceflow to design and build LLM-powered applications.

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Mikhail Burstev is a seasoned AI practitioner and scientist. Founder of one of the most popular chatbot frameworks, Deep Pavlov, Mikhail has been knee deep into the AI space for many years. He joins me to share his thoughts on AI orchestration and Large Language Models.

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Greg Bennett’s the final Conversations2 interviewee focused on large language models!

When I heard that Salesforce have adopted LLMs at scale (and also heard that they had started to design and build this prior to ChatGPT’s release) I wanted to know more!

I’ve known Greg for years and have always found him to be warm, knowledgeable and an expert at making complex subjects understandable. He didn’t disappoint here - we spoke about thinking in systems and how that relates to conversational AI, how LLMs affect conversation design (and how conversa...

Paul Sweeney is the Chief Strategy Officer at Webio, an award winning conversational AI platform. Paul is a renowned figure in the automation and conversational AI space and joins us to share his thoughts on the future of large language models, the impact they could have for enterprises and what Webio is harnessing LLMs for today.

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Peter has written and shared a lot about Large Language Models in recent posts and blogs. We wanted to get his perspective on various things, especially now that Voiceflow have incorporated LLMs into their tool. 

How can conversation designers use LLMs now? How does Peter use the LLM as a sounding board to help him craft prompts? Where might we be using them next? How can we document dynamic conversational designs (when LLMs can allow conversations to go off-rails)?

Ben asked him these questions and more…

0:00:00Start

0:02:44About Pet...

Ahmed Bouzid is an author, CEO and Founder of Witlingo, a SaaS voice AI company that helps brands give a voice to their customers.

Ahmed joins me to share the opportunities and challenges with implementing large language models in voice AI systems such as call centres and voice assistants.

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Andrei Papancea is the CEO and Co-Founder of NLX, a leading conversational AI platform. Andrei joins us to share his thoughts on the value and realistic use cases for large language models in large enterprise automation use cases, the emerging trend of multimodal CX and thoughts on what it takes to get AI automation right.

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Richard Moore joins me to share how Sheffield Hallam University's research project chatbot is helping children move more and be healthy!

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Pete Erickson joins me to take a look at what's in store for VOICE of AI 2023!

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What happens when you interview ChatGPT? Things get strange quickly.

There’s few things as hyped as ChatGPT. Much of it is deserved - this new technology delivers on so much of the promise of conversational AI. It can hold a consistent and flowing conversation, and it can chat with the user no matter what they want to talk about. It’s amazing!

The problem is that it occasionally says blatantly untrue things, and sometimes those are dangerous (such as when it claims it can give medical advice). The onus is on the user...

Sometimes, once in a while, a technology emerges that changes things. This is what Botpress CEO, Sylvian Perron thought when he discovered large language models. So much so, that he completely rebuilt the Botpress conversational AI platform to be LLM-first.

Join us in this conversation to learn why this decision was made, what was involved in pivoting like this, what the current solution looks like and why it's different.

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You’ve probably heard that it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that matters. Well, what if I told you that there’s an AI system that can recognise how you speak and use this information to match your speaking style to the speaking style of, say, a call centre agent. That means that, whenever you call your bank, you’ll have a conversation with someone that shares your speaking style. The result? Better conversations for both customers and businesses.

Joining me to walk through how this technology works, and the impact its...

Explore the transformative power of conversational AI and large language models (LLMs) in creating personalized and seamless retail experiences. In this podcast, we’ll explore three use cases where AI is impacting the retail customer and employee journey.

The traditional shopping cart is dead. In today's digital world, customers expect a more connected and personalized shopping experience. This means that businesses need to go beyond the cart and focus on creating a seamless and engaging experience that meets the needs of their customers.

Join Gopi Polavarapu, Sr. VP at Kore AI as he sh...

We’re used to hearing Text To Speech in conversational AI, but that’s not the only option available. Voice assistants don’t have to use synthetic speech - they can use recordings of a live voice talent instead.

Andrew Muir, Lead Dialogue Designer at PolyAI, explains the benefits of using voice talents. One of his points really resonated with me - why voice talents ease users into the experience!

00:00    Start

00:24    Tell me about yourself?

02:38    What's your favourite bot?

03:26    What are your biggest concerns about ChatGPT?

05:58    Wha...

Join me and NatWest's Mark Worden to explore how NatWest designed and implemented the world's first accessible chatbot.

It might surprise you to learn that one of the most accessible interfaces (conversational AI) is, in some cases, the least accessible part of your website.

How would a blind person use your chatbot? What about someone with a physical impairment which means they can't use a keyboard?

The reality is that, for some people, a chatbot is an exclusive.

NatWest is the only company I've seen to date...

Yvonne Zgraggen is a Product Owner in the Data, Analytics and AI division at Swisscom, a major telco provider in Switzerland. With a background in computer linguistics, UX and conversation design, Yvonne has a wealth of experience that anyone working on conversational AI systems can learn from.

Today, Yvonne joins us to share how Swisscom is approaching conversational process automation and top lessons learned from being a Product Owner for conversational applications.

00:00 Introduction and presenting Unparsed event use VUXWORLD and save 50% or visit the Unparsed website and proceed to the checkout https://unparsedconf...

Let’s talk about proactive messaging!

Michelle Parayil, Conversation Design Manager at Haptik, knows all about it. She’s learnt a great deal about proactive messaging with conversational AI, and shares her learnings and experiences. 

When’s the best time to do proactive messaging? How do we avoid a notification pile-up when sending chat messages proactively? Can a bot that’s too proactive create a bad user experience? It’s all in there, and more…

A wee note about this episode: Michelle called while she was in the middle of a thunderstor...

Let’s talk careers!

This Conversations2 is an interview with Hilary Hayes, who’s a conversation designer, multimodal interaction designer, teacher and mentor.

I reached out to Hilary in the hope she’d chat about career paths. Why? The job title ‘conversation designer’ is still relatively new, the industry is going through rapid transformation, and recently there were layoffs throughout the tech industry which affected many people, including conversation designers. Sadly, Hilary was one of those designers who got laid-off (she worked at Meta), however as you’ll see in this interview that’s absolutely t...

Of all the industries that can and could utilize conversational AI, banking, insurance and the wider financial services sector has some of the biggest opportunities.

To walk us through the kinds of business problems faced by FSI companies, the types of use cases conversational AI is solving for, and to highlight some of the successes, value and lessons learned, I’m joined by Dave Schreffler, SVP Financial Services Sales - Kore.ai, and Peter Berbee SVP Financial Services Product - Kore.ai.

Join VUX World at the EU Chatbot Summit where we’ll be h...