SoundHound doubles down on voice-enabled AI

February 01, 2017

SoundHound doubles down on voice-enabled AI

Consumer Usage Voice AI

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SoundHound, a startup that released its first voice assistant in March 2016, has raised $75 million in new funding, according to a Tuesday announcement.

The company’s AI platform, called Houndify, was built on top of 10 years of research and development (R&D) and powers SoundHoud's voice assistant app Hound.

SoundHound plans to use this round of financing to make headway with its “collective AI” strategy, which enables developers using the Houndify platform to easily leverage information from third-party companies in order to improve their implementations of Houndify. Yelp, Uber, and Expedia are three of the platforms that Houndify draws data from, in addition to more than 100 domains spanning a range of topics including weather, mortgages, and interactive games.

Access to these robust and diverse data sets will ultimately help SoundHound achieve its goal of enabling voice assistants to understand contextual conversations in a timely manner — a feat that every voice assistant on the market struggles with to some degree.

Should SoundHound succeed in its goal of providing a truly natural and conversational voice assistant platform it could drastically increase the share of activities consumers conduct via voice assistants. While a majority of consumers are aware of voice assistants, relatively few of them regularly employ them; Just 33% of consumers aged 14-17 regularly used voice assistants in 2016 according to an Accenture Report.

That share stood at 23% for consumers aged 18-34, and 14% for those aged 35-55. This sluggish uptake is partially due to poor voice interfaces, with OS-powered voice assistants like Apple's Siri lacking the power to be really useful when interacting solely via voice, and speaker-powered voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa relying on a list of programmed commands called Skills that can be difficult for consumers to memorize or keep track of.

A conversational interface, such as the one SoundHound is attempting to develop, would preclude users from having to memorize an ever-growing list of commands for Alexa and provide a more powerful assistant than what's offered by Siri.

Advancements in artificial intelligence, coupled with the proliferation of messaging apps, are fueling the development of chatbots — software programs that use messaging as the interface through which to carry out any number of tasks, from scheduling a meeting, to reporting weather, to helping users buy a pair of shoes.

Foreseeing immense potential, businesses are starting to invest heavily in the burgeoning bot economy. A number of brands and publishers have already deployed bots on messaging and collaboration channels, including HP, 1-800-Flowers, and CNN. While the bot revolution is still in the early phase, many believe 2016 will be the year these conversational interactions take off.

Laurie Beaver, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on chatbots that explores the growing and disruptive bot landscape by investigating what bots are, how businesses are leveraging them, and where they will have the biggest impact.

The report outlines the burgeoning bot ecosystem by segment, looks at companies that offer bot-enabling technology, distribution channels, and some of the key third-party bots already on offer. The report also forecasts the potential annual savings that businesses could realize if chatbots replace some of their customer service and sales reps. Finally, it compares the potential of chatbot monetization on a platform like Facebook Messenger against the iOS App Store and Google Play store.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

AI has reached a stage in which chatbots can have increasingly engaging and human conversations, allowing businesses to leverage the inexpensive and wide-reaching technology to engage with more consumers.
Chatbots are particularly well suited for mobile — perhaps more so than apps. Messaging is at the heart of the mobile experience, as the rapid adoption of chat apps demonstrates.
The chatbot ecosystem is already robust, encompassing many different third-party chat bots, native bots, distribution channels, and enabling technology companies.
Chatbots could be lucrative for messaging apps and the developers who build bots for these platforms, similar to how app stores have developed into moneymaking ecosystems.

In full, the report:

Breaks down the pros and cons of chatbots.
Explains the different ways businesses can access, utilize, and distribute content via chatbots.
Forecasts the potential impact chatbots could have for businesses.
Looks at the potential barriers that could limit the growth, adoption, and use of chatbots.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of chatbots.

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