In a conversation Mr. Stephen Mallik, CEO, ArtiE divulged Fusion Analytics World how ArtiE is changing the Enterprise landscape through their unique voice activated AI platform managed natively from any device.

Introduction: Yourself. What is ARTIE and how did it all start.

I am Stephen Mallik, originally from India, immigrated to USA to pursue the American dream. I am an Entrepreneur with a well rounded startup experience from seed investment, angel investment, serving as C-Level, bootstrap to exit. I have about 20+ years in the IT industry and this project is about bringing it all together like, my past experience in the industry, wisdom, passion and an innate vision.

ArtiE stands for Artificial Intelligence for the Enterprise. We started with a simple question. We use keyboard, mouse and touch to interact with software, why not voice? ArtiE is a platform to develop voice activated software that works natively from any device.

What do you think sets ARTIE’s offering apart from competitors in AI category?

Voice activated software is not the trend. We expect keyboard, mouse and touch to work with any software. The reason behind this is that the tools used to build the software inherently enables these methods of interactions (keyboard, mouse & touch) as a standard. This means that we need software creation tools that would allow voice interaction as a standard feature. However since such a tool is not available, a developer would have to invent his own solution to achieve voice activation. This involves a lot of R&D, knowledge & integration of various technologies, which makes a voice activated solution almost impossible. ArtiE is filling the gap of such a software development tool, which a developer could use to quickly and easily create a voice activated software that works natively from any device.

What is your view of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) landscape?

We are just getting started and no where close to developing true AI capabilities. There are various AI solutions targeting specific problems. Most of the solution are available as APIs and not as a platforms to build turnkey solutions. AI solutions still need high end engineers and substantial amount of R&D. In the  field of Voice activated software, we are making the change by bringing in a platform to create turnkey voice activated software. A platform that is easy & quick to learn.

What do you see as key factors for success of AI enterprise products and what are today’s roadblocks?

AI in general is an emerging solution for enterprises. Current solutions are heavily focused on data. Voice solutions are a nascent concept and the adoption curve is just starting to catch up. The timing seems to be perfect for Voice intelligence in the enterprise IT industry because of the wild success of consumer based voice solutions like Alexa & Google home.

How do you see the AI market shifting in the next several years?

AI market will continue to evolve. Currently we don’t see a big participation of Enterprise software giants like Oracle and SAP in the AI market. We are hoping this will change in the coming years and they will launch market leading mainstream AI product.

What are the different sectors where the AI can actually add value to existing processes?

AI is an obvious fit for data because of the advancement of ML (Machine learning) technology. As the maturity of specific AI technologies improves, we will start seeing impact in the industry. For example Voice has not had an effect on the industry so far because of lack of technology maturity. We have had voice to text and text to voice capabilities for decades now. But the reason it has not had an impact is because it was not usable. In the last few years there were advancements like NLP (Natural language processing) and NLU (Natural language understanding) and some deep learning techniques that makes voice intelligence viable for business now. Likewise as other technologies mature, we will start seeing adoption in the industry.

Are there any particular industries picking up on the opportunities faster?

We are just starting out and do not have enough data to substantiate it. We are currently seeing success in Signage, IOT and Website industry for voice based solution.

What impact AI is having on Voice Intelligence? How developers are benefitting?

ArtiE is a development platform for developers to create voice activated software. Developers will be able to delight their customers by providing a better user experience via voice.

Because ArtiE makes voice activated  software development easy and quick, even junior developers will be able to develop a voice activated software effortlessly.

What will happen in terms of jobs losses and skills as AI makes devices more intelligent?

We are creating a new way to interact with software using voice. This mean UI creators have to now start thinking on how to create UI for a voice centric user experience. We think it will create a requirement for a new breed of VUI (voice user interface) developers, which means what we are developing will lead to more job creation.

So what are the key challenges you are facing in terms of product deployment? Convincing clients about AI and it’s benefits?

AI development translates to high product development cost due to the nature of R&D involved and the team skill necessary to make the advancement in the product. The challenge is to create  a business model that can support such high product development cost.

From an client’s adoption perspective, a solution approach works better than a technology approach. This brings along all the  complexity of packaging a solution for specific  industries.

Can you talk about 2-3 AI case studies where were recently completed.

Signage industry: A growing percentage of signage solution is interactive. Currently users have to use touch interface. Adding voice changes the user experience entirely. We are expecting a accelerated growth in this segment.

Website industry: Websites are a way to brand and market your products and services. User experience via voice drastically improves the  impact and perception of your brand. Also, voice interaction improves user engagement immensely since it involves sensory process like talking and listening.

IoT device: Almost all IoT devices in the market come with a companion mobile app. ArtiE can be used to create the mobile apps for these IoT devices. ArtiE enables the ability to talk to the device and for the device to talk back. This changes the perception of the device in the mind of the user. The user is now perceives this device to be a robot. By using ArtiE, to build mobile apps for their IoT product, firms can change the perception of their device and enhance the abilities of their device.

What is next for you and ArtiE?

ArtiE’s true goal is to solve the problem of Enterprise using all available AI methods and techniques. We will continue to iteratively make progress and improve our capabilities on speed, data, availability, user experience, functionality, intelligence, connectivity, solution, functionality and accessibility.

It was great talking to you Stephen! 

Pleasure talking to you Kalyan

Kalyan Banga

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