062 - Amit Dogra: Voice AI in Finance: Alexa at Sanctuary Wealth

What is the future of AI and voice in financial services, and why does this technology matter? Amit Dogra is the Chief Experience Officer at Sanctuary Wealth, which reached $10bn in AUA (assets under advisement) within 15 months after its 2018 founding. Sanctuary is a partner owned firm that brings together an elite group of wealth advisors under the banner of partnered independence.

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Amit and Emily Binder talked about Sanctuary's unveiling of their Alexa Skills and what it means for their business. Voice is symbolic of more than just embracing new technology.

Topics and timestamps:

03:15 Sanctuary Wealth’s focus on anti-Wall Street and anti-big bank culture, more intimate and partner-oriented: #PartneredIndependence - here’s a video from CEO Jim Dickson about partnered independence

03:45 What does a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) do? He focuses on culture, growth, and innovation.

03:50 How does a Wall Street M.O. cause client experience to suffer? It’s results-driven instead of client-centric.

Amit Dogra unveils Sanctuary Wealth’s Alexa Skills at Oasis 2019

04:15 Creating fictitious bank accounts to hit numbers (you know who) - and the corporate culture that drove this

05:15 Amazon as the ultra customer-centric company

06:30 Sanctuary Wealth’s Alexa Skill announcement in fall 2019 at Oasis: What is Amit’s team doing with voice, and why was this initiative important? Who benefits?

07:28 The audience for their Alexa Skill is both B2B and B2C: there’s corporate and internal use and also advisor to end client

09:45 If I’m a Sanctuary advisor, how do I use the Alexa Skill? Functions include internal phone/directory, corporate contact information, and archives of the monthly all-hands call (“Alexa, play Sanctuary Wealth corporate update”).

11:15 Looking at Echo devices for video calling features, Amit is excited about the Echo Show for multimodal (they deployed on the Echo Show 5, passing up the Dot because the video feature was key)

12:15 Emily: Echo Dot was successful as an affordable entry level smart speaker. Great for habit formation. But today screenless Dots or Google Home Minis aren’t as popular as multimodal voice assistant devices because people want a screen for visuals.

13:10 Results so far: adoption and useful feedback

Sanctuary Wealth unveiled personalized Alexa devices for their advisors (tweet)

14:50 New habit formation

15:30 “Advisors are leaving wirehouses and the banking industry because they’re tired of the past. But we have to give them a reason to stay with us. Doing things differently by embracing tech is key.” - Amit

16:15 You have to spell out and educate with voice at first

16:30 Voice hits the limbic system (this emotional processing center happens to also be where we store music and memory) - and we all know that money is emotional

17:35 What does Amit see happening with AI and technology in financial services and the RIA space in the next two years?

18:13 You can’t imagine the business will be static. AI will be embraced but not as quickly in financial services as other industries.

We want to be the early adopter because this is a copycat industry. -Amit Dogra

19:10 AI can change the financial services game like analytics changed baseball - as far as interaction with clients and doing business in a better way

20:10 Bonus question: What is Amit’s opinion on Jeff Bezos as a CEO?

23:00 The best podcast Amit has heard lately: Everything is Alive hosted by Ian Chillag

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Get in touch with Amit:

Twitter: @AmitTalksFinSvc

sanctuarywealth.com

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059 - Celebrity Skin for Alexa: Novelty or More?

Amazon is charging users 99 cents to skin the standard parts of its voice experience with a celebrity voice. As we close out this decade, we can see a parallel between these early voice experiences and the beginning years of one of the most successful social media apps of all time: Instagram.

Filters—whether photo filters or voice skins—begin as a bolt-on and a novelty. But imagine where they’re headed.

Think rich, contextual voice experiences.

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Similar to what Google Assistant has done, Amazon is now giving customers the option to hear some familiar voices in addition to Alexa’s default voice. Today the company kicked off its celebrity voice program, and it’s starting with Samuel L. Jackson. - The Verge

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052 - Brian Roemmele - Amazon’s Hardware Announcements: Keys to the Castle - Pt. 1

Echo Buds, Echo Frames, Echo Loop, and more new products take Alexa to new fields: what does it mean? Brian Roemmele is known as the Oracle of Voice for a reason. Over decades he has predicted so many things that came true. The brilliance of these new products like Echo Loop is about getting Amazon into the castle without fighting for spaces that are already occupied, like the wrist or the pocket.

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Skip to Part 2 with Brian Roemmele: The Key to Successful Branding - Voice and Beyond Alexa

About Our Guest:

Brian Roemmele is the recognized world authority on how voice AI will impact computing and commerce. Over arc of his career, Brian has built and run payments and tech businesses, worked in media, including the promotion of top musicians, and explored a variety of other subjects along the way. He has been published in Forbes, Huffington Post, Newsweek, Slate, Business Insider, Daily Mail, Inc, Gizmodo, Medium, and is an exclusive Quora top writer. He hosts Around the Coin (earliest crypto currency podcast), Breaking Banks Radio and more, discussing everything from Bitcoin to Voice Commerce.

Brian created the Multiplex app and Multiplex Magazine, a way to stay on top of everything important in technology, payments and just about anything else. He has taken the stage at Money 20/20, ETA Transact and many private events as a speaker on the future of Voice Commerce.

Companies don’t patent things just because.

A big theme of this episode is getting out of the weeds of the technical features and instead looking at better ways to get work done. Think big picture. We are looking at the beginnings of new use cases in brand new paradigms.

When you paradigm shift, the canvas is blank, and that’s where we are with voice.

This is Part 1 - tune back in next week to hear more! We cover branding and marketing foundations based on personas and archetypes, which will determine success tomorrow. 1-click subscribe free in your favorite podcast app now so you don’t miss it.

The idea of the app is already gone.

From Brian’s Quora article about Amazon’s Fall 2019 release and preview of products (9/25/2019):

If Echo and Alexa devices from Amazon along with the Skills ecosystem were a stand-alone company in 2019, using typical startup multiples, Echo, Inc would be worth about $500 billion dollars. This is an astounding achievement and there shows no sign that the acceleration is slowing.

Amazon Owns The Far-Field Voice First Market, Now They Are Comping For The Near-Field

Today was a next generation Amazon Alexa-themed event with Echo devices for every possible use case but most specially the near-field. I have surfaced ~32 primary Voice First modalities. Amazon is now in three:

1. Near-field - on the body

2. Mid-field - small environment

3. Far-field - open room

… read more

Timestamps by topic:

• 04:00 Amazon’s patents telegraph the future

• 04:50 Amazon did not dominate in smartphone, obviously (Fire Phone failed - and at the time in 2014, people overlooked the first generation Amazon Echo)

• 05:50 Smartphone is an old modality

• 06:10 iPhone is the iconic smartphone

• 06:30 What is the strategy to get into the castle? Content and shopping, largest merchant on planet

• 07:10 “Amazon is a retailer, not a technology company” - this is why Amazon created the voice first experience first

Brian Roemmele - @BrianRoemmele

• 07:35 Amazon does not pretend to be a tech company, they’re a company that produces technology

• 07:50 Amazon doesn’t have mindshare yet, and that is key

• 07:55 What happens with content and mindshare? How does content creation play in?

• 08:30 Amazon is not going after the smartphone or smart watch (not after the wrist or the pocket

• 09:10 Products that define new categories must be loved and hated

• 09:30 “Talk to the hand” back in vernacular with Echo Loop

• 10:30 Tech companies don’t consider anthropological and sociological impact of products

• 11:10 We ask “Can we?” too often and don’t ask “Should we?” enough

• 11:45 Brian’s thesis: Hyper Local

• 11:55 Echo Loop (a ring) is not always on - it has a button to engage Alexa. It draws you into the Alexa ecosystem without taking away from Apple AirPods - and that is brilliant.

• 13:20 Future of the voice assistant that you talk to like a significant other

• 13:30 Done thumb clawing at screen - that is the future

• 13:50 Echo Frames and Echo Loop are early versions of the ubiquitous voice future

• 14:20 Near field computing, mid-field, and far-field (open room) - Amazon’s secret weapon over the castle wall was to get in the home (with Echo in 2014) - which became the fastest adopted consumer technology in history

• 15:10 The tech leap happened organically with consumers from kitchen to living room - Amazon is doing the same strategy again to get people to adopt this in the near field

• 15:50 People mocked the iPad (menstrual pad?) and look what happened - these products have to be hated or mocked

• 16:30 iPhone was laughed at because it didn’t have a keyboard. What is past is prologue. We always see the future through the glasses of right now and the past - always view the future through the rearview mirror:

• 16:40 We defined the new in the words of the old, e.g.: the horseless carriage, flameless candle, talking pictures.

• 17:50 Most voice first experts have nothing to do with the technology world, which irritates folks in tech

• 18:45 Computing is not what it was for the last sixty years, and it will not continue to be what is has been the last twenty - think about this for typing and interacting

• 18:55 Technology gets bigger and bigger until it disappears (e.g. you don’t talk about your carburetor, you just buy a car that works or Jobs saying RAM doesn’t matter, you will only care what the computer does or accomplishes)

• 21:35 There are no killer applications for voice. “Apps?” That’s 2D. (Check out our interview with Dave Isbitski, Chief Evangelist of Alexa, where we concluded the same thing)

• 21:55 So what are people really looking for with voice?

• 22:30 "The idea of the app is already gone.” - Brian

• 23:40 The intimate relationship that technology can and will spawn is the killer app. We can’t see that world clearly yet

• 24:50 We’re not battling on the grounds defined by prior technologies

• 25:10 We’ve only seen 4 of the 175 modalities that voice first works in

• 25:50 Amazon’s brilliance is great utility to an existing ecosystem (Alexa)

Echo Buds (pre-order Echo Buds for $129.99 <— this link helps support the show!)

• 25:00 Amazon doesn’t expect Echo Buds to replace Apple AirPods

• 27:20 Echo Buds isolate noise and incorporate multiple VAs like Google and Siri

• 27:30 AirPods are a cultural phenomenon about fashion as much as sound- that is why they won’t be easily replaced by Echo Buds

• 28:05 Brand signaling with AirPods, or whatever product comes next- that is human

• 28:30 Loop and Frames are wise moves

• 29:10 AOL move to open AOL Mail to internet mail is similar to Buds move to open to other VAs

• 29:40 Amazon subsidies for Buds and Amazon Music. Music is a commodity - supplier does not matter.

• 30:10 When you stream music, that streaming service makes almost nothing (e.g. Apple, Google, Spotify) - loss leader. The strategy is about attention, narrative, communication with the customer.

• 30:50 See: Prime. Brilliant. Long term relationship.

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Connect with Brian Roemmele:

• Twitter @BrianRoemmele

• voicefirst.expert

• Quora author: Brian Roemmele
  

039 - Katherine Prescott: Alexa Privacy, Echo Show 5

Katherine Prescott is the Founder and Editor of VoiceBrew, a digital media company dedicated to helping people get the most out of Alexa. We discussed privacy on Amazon Alexa as well as the future of #voicefirst advertising. Which tech company's business model has true alignment with the end user, examining Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook.

Katherine Prescott is the Founder & Editor of VoiceBrew, a top resource for Alexa tips and best uses

Topics and timestamps:

• Privacy - Amazon Alexa - is she recording?

• Amazon Echo Show 5 announcement - new features, especially for greater privacy and user data control

• When is Alexa recording vs listening?

• How do I control my privacy settings on Alexa?

• 3.10 This privacy dialogue is healthy - it improves voice assistants for consumers

• Echo Show 5 has a new camera shutter and the ability to say “Alexa, delete everything I said today”

• 4.20 Alexa app is not the focus

• 5.00 Discoverability is the ultimate challenge

• 5.05 It’s called the 5 but this refers to the 5.5 inch screen - is same as third gen echo

• 5.10 Why the Echo Show 5 is such a big deal - compelling land grab for affordable smart display space

• 6.10 Like the shift from radio to TV, third party Alexa skills will improve dramatically because of multi-modal

• 10.04 Will smart display pave the way for advertising? Banner even? Less intrusive than voice? Alexa diplsay ads?

• 10.50 Emily: sponsorship and brand preference will be paid for - that will be the advertising, unlike previous digital like banner ads or PPC

• 11.30 Katherine: Tech giants are shifting toward privacy as a feature

• 13.15 Business model and alignment - Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook. Great point from Katherine.

• 14.02 Google's pitch: we provide free services and collect your data.

• 14.27 Think of privacy in broader context - we are in the early innings of voice 

See this post on Instagram and follow @beetlemoment for #voicefirst news

Sources:

1. Echo Show 5: https://www.techradar.com/news/amazon-echo-show-5-everything-you-need-to-know

2. "Buried in this morning’s Echo Show 5 announcement are a couple of new security features worth highlighting. In addition to the inclusion of a built-in camera shutter on the new smart display are a pair of Echo  commands that let users delete voice recordings with an Alexa command." -https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/29/amazon-adds-alexa-delete-what-i-said-today-command/

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Enjoy this episode about #voicefirst marketing and technology? Please leave us a review! 1) Click “Listen in Apple Podcasts”, 2) Click “Open in iTunes:, 3) Click “Ratings and reviews”. Thanks!

Get in touch with Katherine Prescott:

Twitter: @kbprescott

Instagram: @voicebrew

Voicebrew.com

027 - How to Make the Voice Assistant Like Your Brand

Hear how the future ubiquitous voice assistant will decide whether to promote your brand.

We spend major ad dollars on the duopoly (Google and Facebook) with Amazon a distant third. Those ad dollars will shift.

Telenav announced that it is integrating Amazon Alexa into its automotive navigation system offering.

1.0:

The voice assistant we know today will be so much smarter tomorrow. 

Your shadow, your assistant:

The voice assistant will be every person’s personal assistant, their shadow, their life historian and documentarian. It will mitigate our drudge work for life admin tasks like errands and comparison shopping. It will save us all kinds of time. I hope we use that time well.

What won't change:

We are at the mercy of an algorithm today: many ecommerce retailers live and die by SEO on Google and on Amazon. Tomorrow our brands will be at the AI's mercy. The data will be richer, the algorithm more complex.

Amazon, which is nearing $800 billion in value, is making a noticeable push in advertising products, hoping to grab a piece of Google and Facebook’s duopoly of digital advertising. Voice commerce is estimated to be a $18.3 billion opportunity by 2023.

This idea of the future is not radically different from the game we play with search engines today. You bid to be at the top based on a user’s query, or you work on your content to rank high organically.

The same process will happen but with less screen, and more anticipation of the user’s needs or next purchase.

When the assistant recommends a product, it will try to match to the user’s needs, history, and preferences. Google does this today with search results. Your website gets rewarded for relevancy. Everyone tries to game the SEO algorithm but ultimately if you have great content that solves the searcher’s problems google knows it and ranks you higher. There is no silver bullet.

Up Next:

Tune in next week for episode 28: my upcoming interview with Jon Chu, an expert in voice first ecommerce and retail.

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010 - Future Flight Attendants and Captains of S&M

• Sexist stickers for kids onboard TUI.
• PR crisis fail - no main brand Twitter account to issue a statement.
• What is the deal with gender roles today? It’s confusing to be expected to display assertive traits in the office and “feminine” traits at home. And why are so many young men not acting like men?
• Chuck and Wendy Rhoades have a special power balance on Billions and domination/submission role play is a release more common than you may think.

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