Move Over, Siri. Nina's in Town

Speech technology has proven that we are ready as a society to embrace the virtual assistant on mobile devices. Last summer, Nuance (News - Alert) brought us Nina, the virtual assistant for large enterprises implementing customer service apps, and she’s gotten a makeover since her debut.

Known as the virtual assistant for customer service, Nina has expanded to the Web and now speaks 38 different languages.

More than that, the update to Nina is a big deal. As consumers demand a more interactive experience with the companies they do business with, Nina steps in. When it comes to websites, Nina acts as a human-like virtual agent that can help customers out as if they were talking to a live person, and, if needed, she will route them to a person who can further assist with their needs.

What makes Nina different than other virtual assistants is combining the virtual assistant with the virtual agent. This is a pretty big step for businesses looking to expand upon their customer experiences. By adding conversation to Web-based customer service, the customer gets the experience that they’ve been demanding while businesses deliver great service.

“Nina is driving a new generation of customer self-service, where customers finally get the experience they’ve been demanding at a scale that the world’s largest brands require,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. “Through our innovations in language, understanding and expression, Nuance is unique in our ability to securely deliver intelligent virtual assistants, in a wide number of languages, recognizing speech and text, across many channels. Add to this our 800-strong global services organization, and this truly is a game-changer for enterprise brands around the world.”

Nina was made for industries like banking, hospitality and retail, as the system allows users to bypass the traditional menu and sub-menus usually associated with automated customer service systems.

The days of the human behind the telephone line are coming to an end. Voice recognition is becoming more sophisticated, so much that it may soon be hard to distinguish between an automated system and the real thing.

Edited by Rachel Ramsey