Experts agree that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will belong to the main developments and key technology trends in the upcoming years. According to IDC the AI market will grow to more than $47 billion in 2020. It will have an impact on a wide range of functions across many industries. The French start-up called Snips developed an AI voice platform that offers an alternative to the solutions of technology giants like Google or Amazon. Learn in this blog how they differentiate from them and why their platform is unique.
Quite some use cases that involve artificial intelligence can be found already today, such as automated customer service agents, quality management investigation, diagnosis systems or fraud analysis. The technology giants Google or Amazon are amongst the pioneers with their speech recognition systems Google Home or Alexa in Amazon’s Echo, just to mention those two examples. Another example are chatbots that are used for instance in dialog systems such as the Facebook messenger. They use sophisticated natural language processing systems to send a reply with the most matching keywords, or the most similar wording pattern, from a database.
In most cases the cloud serves as the foundation of AI. Companies migrate and run operations in the cloud. It’s the underlying platform to store data and that has the capability to do massive processing. A different approach is followed by the French start-up company Snips. The twist is that all the computing will be done on the device itself. A cloud is not needed anymore, which on the one hand means the omission of costs for a cloud provider, and on the other hand safeguarding individual’s privacy. Especially the latter aspect is crucial for people’s buying decision, as no sensitive data need to be send to and stored on some far-off server. Snips puts artificial intelligence in every connected device. The offline capabilities is what makes it voice platform an alternative to Google or Amazon.
When Snips was founded in 2013 as a research lab, the founders had the vision to make technology disappear from our consciousness by the use of artificial intelligence. They found out that the interaction of humans with machines will be one of the biggest issues in the next decades. Instead of letting humans do the “job”, the idea of Snips is to train the devices in a way that they understand people’s needs and perform actions respectively. Application scenarios are diverse. It can be integrated in automotive vehicle technology, robotics or smart home, appliances or energy management, just to mention a few.
The AI voice platform includes hot word detection, speech recognition (ASR), natural language understanding (NLU) and dialog. Snips runs fast, with minimal hardware requirements and is low on latency, which is a big value for customers. At EBV we understand that big potential of the fast growing voice recognition market. We provide the solutions that make solutions like Snips run, starting from application processors over microphones to audio amplifiers. With our engineering power, reliable supply chain services, extensive technology experience and a diverse partner network we are able to support startups like Snips to market their products.
At CES 2018, Snips will introduce its AI voice platform to the public and potential customers in Las Vegas. The world’s largest and most important consumer show is the perfect place to do so. The event will mark the kick-off of a year that will be very much dominated by the subject of artificial intelligence, a technology that will become so deeply integrated in our lives that we simply won’t notice it anymore. It will simplify and improve people’s experiences with and make technology easier to use through more natural interfaces.
