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Voice Recognition Enters The Mainstream
Voice recognition is moving from curious novelty to strategic technology. American Express, United Parcel Service, Alamo Rent A Car, and scores of other companies are testing and deploying voice-recognition systems for critical business applications, taking advantage of recent technology advances.
American Express Travel Related Services is among the most aggressive, announcing this week that it's deploying a server-based voice-recognition system, code-named Paris, to take airline reservations. By year's end, customers will be able to check and book flights to 250 domestic locations by talking to a computer on the phone.
American Express maintains that the system based on software from Nuance Communications and hardware from Periphonics Interactive Voice Response will slash transaction costs in half. In addition, the system should cut the average transaction time to two minutes from seven, helping the travel unit boost bookings by 5 percent without adding more agents. "It has a tremendous amount of potential," says Mike Mulligan, president of American Express' Interactive Services Group.
After years of improving processing power and refining algorithms, industry players such as Dragon Systems, IBM, Lernout & Hauspie, Nuance, and Registry Magic have developed systems that recognize words more than 90 percent of the time. The latest products, continuous voice-recognition systems, let people speak at a natural pace instead of pausing between words. Mass implementation is only a matter of time, users say.
"For years it was `promises, promises,' but the technology is finally here," says Thomas Loane, VP of communications and computers at Alamo, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which this month will start letting customers cancel and confirm car reservations using IBM voice-recognition technology. Alamo customers will soon be able to make reservations over the system. Most other companies in the travel industry are testing and preparing to implement voice-recognition technology.
UPS, which uses voice-recognition technology internally, is ready to pilot an application that will let customers track their packages. Retailer Wal-Mart Stores plans to roll out a voice-recognition system from Vocollect by September that helps workers locate and stock inventory.
In financial services, Charles Schwab & Co. leapt in front last year with Voice Broker, an application developed with Nuance that lets users access stock prices and other information by dialing a number and speaking the name of the company, stock symbol, mutual fund or market indicator. E*Trade Group, an online investing service, is spending $3 million to deploy a similar system based on technology from Applied Language Technologies and InterVoice.
The technology is even finding its way to the PC, letting users in the legal, medical and other industries dictate documents and navigate their desktops. Dragon Systems, in Newton, Mass., sells Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a $695 software package that recognizes 30,000 words; it has a back-up dictionary of 230,000 words. "This product alone could spell the end of the keyboard," says John Oberteuffer, president of Voice Information Associates, a consultancy in Lexington, Mass.
But it's the more complex, server-based products, which typically cost $3,000 to $5,000 per line, that are supporting business-critical applications. American Express' Paris asks users questions such as "Where do you want to travel to?" The system can handle 350 city and airport names and lets callers use more than 10,000 different ways to identify a location. For example, a user might say anything from "New York" to "JFK" to identify John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
American Express says it's optimistic the application is ready for prime time, but the beta test will answer a bigger question, says Mulligan: "Will users find it sufficiently useful and beneficial?" Voice Recognition Enters The Mainstream
Voice recognition is moving from curious novelty to strategic technology. American Express, United Parcel Service, Alamo Rent A Car, and scores of other companies are testing and deploying voice-recognition systems for critical business applications, taking advantage of recent technology advances.
American Express Travel Related Services is among the most aggressive, announcing this week that it's deploying a server-based voice-recognition system, code-named Paris, to take airline reservations. By year's end, customers will be able to check and book flights to 250 domestic locations by talking to a computer on the phone.
American Express maintains that the system based on software from Nuance Communications and hardware from Periphonics Interactive Voice Response will slash transaction costs in half. In addition, the system should cut the average transaction time to two minutes from seven, helping the travel unit boost bookings by 5 percent without adding more agents. "It has a tremendous amount of potential," says Mike Mulligan, president of American Express' Interactive Services Group.
After years of improving processing power and refining algorithms, industry players such as Dragon Systems, IBM, Lernout & Hauspie, Nuance, and Registry Magic have developed systems that recognize words more than 90 percent of the time. The latest products, continuous voice-recognition systems, let people speak at a natural pace instead of pausing between words. Mass implementation is only a matter of time, users say.
"For years it was `promises, promises,' but the technology is finally here," says Thomas Loane, VP of communications and computers at Alamo, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which this month will start letting customers cancel and confirm car reservations using IBM voice-recognition technology. Alamo customers will soon be able to make reservations over the system. Most other companies in the travel industry are testing and preparing to implement voice-recognition technology.
UPS, which uses voice-recognition technology internally, is ready to pilot an application that will let customers track their packages. Retailer Wal-Mart Stores plans to roll out a voice-recognition system from Vocollect by September that helps workers locate and stock inventory.
In financial services, Charles Schwab & Co. leapt in front last year with Voice Broker, an application developed with Nuance that lets users access stock prices and other information by dialing a number and speaking the name of the company, stock symbol, mutual fund or market indicator. E*Trade Group, an online investing service, is spending $3 million to deploy a similar system based on technology from Applied Language Technologies and InterVoice.
The technology is even finding its way to the PC, letting users in the legal, medical and other industries dictate documents and navigate their desktops. Dragon Systems, in Newton, Mass., sells Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a $695 software package that recognizes 30,000 words; it has a back-up dictionary of 230,000 words. "This product alone could spell the end of the keyboard," says John Oberteuffer, president of Voice Information Associates, a consultancy in Lexington, Mass.
But it's the more complex, server-based products, which typically cost $3,000 to $5,000 per line, that are supporting business-critical applications. American Express' Paris asks users questions such as "Where do you want to travel to?" The system can handle 350 city and airport names and lets callers use more than 10,000 different ways to identify a location. For example, a user might say anything from "New York" to "JFK" to identify John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
American Express says it's optimistic the application is ready for prime time, but the beta test will answer a bigger question, says Mulligan: "Will users find it sufficiently useful and beneficial?" |
