7 Mar 2024

Neural Voice’s AI-enabled interactive business companion elevates conversations, creating new connections.

Neural Voice plans to enhance and refine the customer experience by reimagining the way in which businesses communicate with their customers online. Instead of relying on the impersonal and transactional nature of chatbots and voice-to-text AI, companies can use Neural Voice to create their own AI business guide, an avatar that can communicate directly with customers visiting their website or various other platforms and devices. The character will provide customers with relevant, real-time information in conversations that sound and feel natural.

Whether in sales or customer service, the art of successful communications lies in building connections and understanding context. Discover how Neural Voice’s real-time and responsive AI characters have been designed to identify and enhance the nuanced interactions in various industries such as sales, marketing, business development and travel.

Industry overview and challenges 

With nearly 1 in 4 US adults already having a smart speaker in their home, voice assistants and conversational AI are quickly increasing in popularity and becoming a regular part of people’s lives [1]. The numbers are staggering – while the voice AI market is expected to grow from $19.7bn in 2022 to $92bn in 2030 [2], the chatbot market is projected to increase from $5.1bn in 2022 to $27.4bn in 2030 [3].   

Research shows that 40% of adults use voice search daily [4], indicating that the use of digital assistants and AI voice technology is becoming normalised. However, current voice technologies like Alexa and Siri often provide subpar and disjointed user experiences. Common issues with the existing technology include a limited understanding of user intent, frustrating latency, and a lack of deep personalisation options. This can lead to dissatisfied customers and missed opportunities for businesses that impact their service quality and efficiency.  

Technology industry giants, such as Amazon and Apple, have made significant inroads into voice AI, yet their creations currently lack the ability to provide nuanced, purpose-driven and contextually relevant conversation. [5]. For Jeremy Smith, founder and CEO of Neural Voice, a fascination with AI began in 2010 with Cleverbot, a chatbot web application that was launched in 2008 [6] While studying and starting his career, he watched the emergence of voice AI technologies like Siri and Alexa. Although convenient, he felt they were impersonal, and so began trying to identify the ‘missing link’ that would turn voice AI from a transaction into a conversation. [7] 

 

Introducing Neural Voice 

Neural Voice’s inception stems from the need to create an AI that goes beyond the transactional operations of currently available options. According to the company, it has developed Europe’s first ‘voice interface’ to large language models (LLMs). Essentially, it allows users to access the knowledge of the internet through a conversation with an AI-enabled ‘chatbot’ character that listens, understands and responds to the user in real time.

Supported by the AI incubator, Neural River, the company also leverages the technical expertise of its advisory team, including industry veterans Ian Pattison, Dave Rogers, Steven Hodge and Chris Mottershead.

The company believes its AI extends beyond the constraints of standard customer service, becoming a tirelessly efficient member of the team. In the realms of sales, it functions not just as an assistant but also as a persuasive, informed advocate for company products, adapting to spikes in demand without missing a beat. The platform can boost customer satisfaction while freeing up human agents for more complex queries, Neural Voice aims to excel in performance and adaptability. The company’s AI technology can take on a myriad of roles including sales, customer service, website Q&A and outbound marketing, and can communicate with customers as an avatar on a company’s website or contact customers directly on the phone.

Watch Neural Voice in action:

How Neural Voice works 

Neural Voice is not just creating another digital assistant. Instead, it’s striving to build a sophisticated AI co-pilot that can understand context, remember past interactions, and interact with the nuanced comprehension of a human with the aims of elevating online customer experiences.

The platform enables companies to create and train their AI characters, using their own website content and documentation. Neural Voice characters align with the specific needs and brand identity of a company. From in-depth product knowledge and company policies to industry-specific jargon, the characters learn directly from the materials provided by the company. This ensures that they understand everything about the business and can respond instantly with relevant information. This level of personalised engagement has the potential to transform customer experiences, enhance accessibility, and provide a presence that feels genuinely supportive and attentive. The company’s intent opens a world of possibilities for enhanced efficiency and a more intuitive approach to technology. This personalisation is key to Neural Voice’s ambitions.

The company claims that its AI voice platform understands and anticipates user needs, minimises response delays, and provides advanced customisations. With an acute memory for past interactions, Neural Voice looks to craft responses filled with context and relevance. It can guide a user through the exciting intricacies of travel options, asking relevant questions that allow it to tailor its responses to suit the user. It does more than process information; it understands and connects. Most importantly, Neural Voice doesn’t just provide information to users, it translates conversations into actions. If a customer mentions that they want to book a meeting, they will be directed to the company’s booking form. If they ask to be put in touch with the HR department, Neural Voice will automatically forward the call.

The purported benefits of Neural Voice extend beyond the initial communications with customers. Neural Voice integrates with over 150 customer relationship management systems (CRMs). Once the customer ends the conversation, the data that has been exchanged is collected and stored. This includes phone numbers, emails, names, transcripts, summaries, and specific queries.

Using sophisticated NLP and machine learning, powered by OpenAI, Neural Voice is constantly learning from interactions to improve its conversational ability. According to the company, it can handle a sudden surge of queries just as easily as an in-depth, one-on-one discussion, making it a versatile tool that grows with businesses and enhances every customer touchpoint.

The founders' story

Jeremy Smith
co-founder and CEO

After a thrilling journey in the tech industry, from kickstarting his career in sales to diving deep into the world of AI, Jeremy witnessed the transformative power of technology firsthand. This led him to explore the boundless possibilities of AI. Jeremy has over 10 years of professional work experience and is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded Neural Voice, Neural River and Sales Compass, h He holds both a master’s degree in marketing and a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from Bangor University.  

The next steps 

Neural Voice has opted to utilise Floww’s innovative infrastructure for its upcoming funding round, aligning with its future objectives. The company has signed reseller agreements with several UK telecom players, and plans to expand this network in 2024. It is also focused on expanding its market penetration.  

Over the course of this year, Neural Voice is prioritising the integration of live data into its AI characters, enabling it to incorporate real-time data into conversations seamlessly.  The focus now lies in providing the flexibility for Neural Voice to access live data from any API based on the specific needs of our customers, including a collaboration with the Amadeus API. To ensure it delivers an exceptional product, Neural Voice has strategically postponed the onboarding of new clients to focus on its initial clients.   

The company’s ambitions extend further, and it seeks to redefine not only business-oriented AI but also personal AI companionship. Its end goal is to create an AI that people would want to talk to and would trust to offer them advice. This vision calls for a level of AI sophistication that exceeds anything currently on the market, and it is this challenge that Neural Voice is determined to meet [5]. 

 

**Floww Markets Limited is a company authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm reference number 980098.

The information and imagery contained within this article does not represent the opinions of Floww. Floww does not have a view on opinions provided by Neural Voice in this article and elsewhere where they may be expressed, and is not responsible or liable for the information within this article.