The Future of Communication
Communication makes the world go around. It is what drives life. And if we have learned nothing else in the challenging times, we have all recently experienced, we have learned the importance of communication and connection, however it is achieved.
There is little argument on its supreme significance. But there are huge changes ahead in how we communicate, both as individuals and as businesses. Recent polls predict that the most popular ways of communicating in the future will be wearable technology, augmented reality glasses and smart watches for example. Things I only dreamed about as a kid or watched on the sci-fi channel.
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence
Over the course of the next decade, this is only going to explode further, with technological advancements of AI and NLP, for example, playing an even more significant role in our daily lives and particularly in the way that we communicate.
AI is already playing a key role in workplace, automating tasks that only a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Take digital switchboards. Think about when you first experienced them, their clunky, mechanical experience. And now, think about the last time you interacted with one, a smoother and more human experience, I am sure. And that is only going to get better.
At this very moment, we are focusing a lot of our research and development on speech to text and conversational AI. We are training our own Automatic Speech Recognition systems using our PA’s so that we can increase the accuracy of our transcriptions. We are also working with companies like Nvidia and Huggingface to implement state of the art conversational AI capabilities into our product base.
In investing into our speech recognition software, we are constantly improving our ability to distinguish between more words and accents and respond using natural language. Thanks to cloud-based processing it is also learning every time, improving as it does. Great for us as a communications and technology organization, our goal being to harness the power of technology to work in synergy with our people to make the next conversation better than the last. And great for all organizations.
The Power of your Data.
Data is your golden goose. It helps you predict trends, identify opportunities, safeguard against threats and stay ahead of the market and the competition. It provides insights to customer behavior, product lifecycles and market bearing so that you can be agile, prepare and respond effectively.
Fundamentally, data is what you make your informed business decisions based upon. Not only is the speech recognition software improving our communications, but it is also adding to our data. Data that is collected and can be analyzed, providing actionable information and insights for business. The potential and value of speech recognition to business is colossal.
Being able to effectively and efficiently being analyze your data means that you can understand customer interests and expectations with more speed and accuracy, turning it into actionable intelligence, tailoring it to meet their needs and exceed them even before they are asking for it.
A New World.
Digital transformation is all about leveraging technology to fundamentally change the way that we do business and improve the process and value for our customers. It is at the very core of the future of communication.
It will look different across countries, industries, companies but it is not simply about the technology. It is about rethinking how you work with technology, people and processes. It is about harnessing the right technology for your organization. It is a massive undertaking, but every business has room for improvement. Ultimately, ensuring that it is equipped to make better decisions, faster.
The hows and whys deserve an article to themselves. What is relevant here is that you need people’s buy-in. Talk about technological advancements and their near endless potential, and the normal reaction is uncertainty, fear even. Embracing speech recognition software, for example, is not about replacing human interactions, it is about adding value to your people and your business. It is about supporting your people with the tools that they need to do their job.
And the key to the future of communication, is communication. As with introducing anything new, but especially technology, it is critical to take people on the journey with you, involve them from the offset, communicate, be transparent, discuss the fears and make the benefits relevant. Do this and AI, or speech recognition software, whatever you decide is the best technology for you, can contribute to creating a wonderful place to work and a workplace with a long-term future.
What is the future of communication?
I wish I had the crystal ball to predict that. Unfortunately, I do not. I do believe that the future of business is in the ability to constantly evolve, and technology will play a critical role. It is about asking how you do things and how you can do things better and how technology can help. For example, AI can remove the burden of repetitive administrative tasks, freeing employees up to focus on being more agile, more customer-focused and more innovative.
The only thing I can predict is that technology is getting ever better at enhancing the human communications experience, creating quality conversations enabling rapid, efficient communications through real human beings.
By: Pete Hanlon, CTO of Moneypenny
