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SAN JOSE, Calif., May 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- An industry organization founded in 1981, the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) announced the second Conversational Interaction Conference will be held in San Jose, California,  February 5-6, 2018. Bill Scholz, AVIOS president, said, "We believe that every company must have a digital assistant that customers can address with human language. It will be as necessary as having a web site, and today's technology supports such an objective. The CI Conference will give a full perspective on what is available to help companies achieve that goal."

You can build a "bot" for Facebook Messenger, a "skill" for Amazon's Alexa, or an "action" for Google Assistant, and these companies will provide you a toolkit that eases the task, AVIOS noted. But there are an increasing number of such channels, and these channels have restrictions on what your company-specific digital assistant can do. "It's a bit like having a web site that can be reached only by going through another company's web site with their approval," according to William Meisel, Executive Director, AVIOS, and Editor of an industry newsletter, LUI News (on the Language User Interface).

Building an independent digital assistant has major advantages:

• You can build the core natural language processing (and speech recognition if the interaction is by voice) once and use it in multiple channels that include Facebook bots or Alexa skills, but also allow your branded digital assistant to be available directly through the web, as a mobile app, by your customer service line, and other channels.
• You have full control of your branded digital assistant as the use of automated natural conversations expands with digital assistants that are increasingly independent of operating systems and hardware.

The CI Conference includes talks and demonstrations from companies that can help you develop digital assistants both for specialized channels and for independent deployment. Case studies from companies that have done so provide insights into what to expect and results you may achieve.

The conference is noted for the informal networking as well as the formal talks and panels. Most speakers also attend the conference and mix with attendees.

AVIOS noted that sponsorships are open.

SOURCE Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS)