Got a query? Just ask Viv, a new, next generation AI assistant that’s many steps ahead of its predecessor Siri, (both created by the same visionaries, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer).
And it’s not just queries that Viv can handle; during a fascinating demo hosted by Kittlaus, Viv showed, with flawless ease, that any number of complex requests could be dealt with – from sending a quick payment to a friend, birthday flowers to mum or suggesting and booking a hotel.
“The capabilities of Viv are truly amazing. Working in a similar, yet more sophisticated way than ‘AI assistants’ such as Facebook’s Messenger bots, Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa, its ability to respond to requests to book reservations, send payments, purchase goods, etc. by connecting to third-party merchants will change the way we look at, and organise our lives. Viv’s tagline is ‘intelligence becomes a utility’, which is perfectly apt when you think about its definitive goal: to be the ultimate AI assistant that can seek, and respond to, any number of gadgets and digital services to answer your query or find the service you need.”
In the demo hosted by Kittlaus, we see how Viv responds to fairly complicated questions such as ‘will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the Golden Gate Bridge after 5pm the day after tomorrow?’ And it also handles other, more personalised requests such as ‘send Adam 20 bucks’ because it has stored detailed knowledge about the user and their social movements. The fact that Viv can create its own complex experiences and use software that writes itself when responding to queries is a big step in the future of AI assistants. What do you need? Viv’s response rate is impressive; you can have a step-by-step programme in less than a second in many cases – and it’s not just questions, you can have conversations too. In fact, the capabilities seem endless, which is why Kittlaus describes it as ‘the universe of capabilities.’
So, move over apps and those pretenders from Facebook, Google and Amazon too… Viv wants to be everything to its user, as well as unique to every individual. The more it gets to know you, the better it will respond; understanding your personal preferences and remembering your history to be the platform you need for any request.
Adam Koopersmith, a Viv investor, explains, “…there will be a move away from having hundreds of different apps that act independently. These services will be integrated into everyday life. Viv will be the platform to enable it.”
We have already seen big improvements in AI – how it speaks and reacts to our voice, and its ability to classify results. In the future, it is reasonable to expect AI personal assistants to become even more personal and even more context aware but what does that mean for business? If you liken the advancement and usage of AI assistants to computing, the picture becomes clearer. Computers are now a ubiquitous part of many organisations, as well as our everyday lives but as recently as thirty-forty years ago, this wasn’t the case.
“Hard to believe now, isn’t it? Just as computers changed the way companies worked, AI will continue to take on more and more decision making tasks – although, we hope, not to the detriment of humans!”
If you would like to learn more about AI assistants and how you can use them in your own business, get in touch and stay one step ahead when it comes technological advancements. The future is here, and the future is AI.
