What is Google duplex?
Google Duplex is an advanced artificial intelligence technology developed by Google as an extension of Google Assistant.
It is an automated system capable of making phone calls on behalf of the user, using a natural-sounding human voice.
Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, the world is changing, much faster than we can perceive.
In this article I introduce some insights into how it might impact, on the lives and Business of all of us.
The article is especially dedicated to Marketing Managers, Sales Managers and Entrepreneurs.
If you don’t feel like reading the first part, I invite you to jump in, to the final consideration, right after the video introducing the new Google Duplex service.
Today’s reflection starts with a double cue:
- The interesting reading of the Article “Influencer in the flesh? No thanks, now the avatar is depopulating.” published in the Online Magazine Pambianconews.
- The meeting we had in the past few days with Dr. Marco dal Monte, of Trade Compass, a company specializing in Digital Transformation.
With Dr. dal Monte, at the end of a business meeting, we spent a long time talking about Digital Transformation and how the use of virtual assistants will impact our work.
In this regard, we also talked about Google’s new Duplex service, still in the testing phase, which has something incredible.
A small step back. It was back in 2001 when the well-known American director Steven Spielberg, took charge of Directing the film A.I. – Artificial Intelligence.
Film based on a Stanley Kubrick project, the subject of which was based on the 1969 short story by Brian Aldiss.
Now over the years there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of films based on this type of subject matter: from the Matrix to Minority Report, via “The Thirteenth Floor,” which I personally found brilliant.
The focus or rather say the subject of these films, has as its starting point, always artificial intelligence and how it will change our future which corresponds, given the date of the films in question, to our present.
The applications are now endless; I mention only a few:
- Automated telephone answers that offer various solutions, making sure that you never have to talk to an operator (cost reduction).
- Virtual assistants who accompany you during your purchase, whether you are on a site, an App, or a Social Network (Business Augmentation and Customer & Social Care).
- Avatars used to launch Products or Services. In this regard, I refer to Dior ‘s use of the virtual girl Noonoouri for the takeover of its Instagram profile, on the occasion of the Dior Cruise 2019 (see article published in the Online Magazine Pambianconews, reported at the beginning of this post).
- But the thing that most impressed, not to say shocked, me is the Duplex service presented by Google during its own Google IO 2018 conference.
I invite you to watch the video and if you feel like it, to read my brief reflection.
In the video from the latest Google IO 2018, the Demo of the Duplex service is presented, which enables artificial intelligence to handle a phone call in a completely natural way.
The demonstrations are 2.
In the first case, Google Duplex calls a restaurant to make a reservation.
The answers given by the restaurateur are clear and precise, so the virtual assistant concludes the reservation successfully.
In the second case, a restaurant, probably conducted by Chinese, was contacted.
The girl on the other end of the phone gives answers that are inconsistent with the question, despite the fact that these were asked by the virtual assistant, in an extremely clear and precise manner.
It is shocking how Google Duplex can handle the phone call as naturally as a human being.
Pauses, answers, more questions. No one would say there is some iron (servers) and software (artificial intelligence) behind it.
Google Duplex: key features
Google Duplex is designed to perform real-world related activities through telephone interactions. Its main features include:
- Reservations: Can schedule hair salon or barber appointments, make reservations at restaurants, and get information on business hours.
- Natural interaction: The system can understand complex sentences, quickly spoken words and long remarks, adapting to the natural flow of conversation.
- Call management: Duplex can handle incoming calls, filtering calls and providing real-time transcripts to the user.
- Hold for Me: With the “Hold for Me” feature, the system can remain on hold during calls and alert the user when a human operator answers.
Google Duplex: purpose and use
The main purpose of Google Duplex is to automate and simplify telephone interactions on behalf of the user. This allows for:
- Save time in performing routine tasks
- Overcoming language or communication barriers
- Improve accessibility for people with difficulties in using the telephone
Google Duplex represents a significant step forward in voice assistant technology, seeking to make interactions more natural and human-like.
Tomorrow, for example, we will be able to use it to make the ‘purchase of movie tickets.
Google Duplex: how it can impact society
At this point there are two questions:
- The first is the simplest. What is the moral and legal threshold that cannot be crossed with this kind of application? This question is not within my expertise and certainly not the place, where to deal with this kind of topic.
- The second, however, is the one that is closest to my heart, because it could drastically change the work of us marketeers. What jobs are going to disappear thanks to, or perhaps better said because of, this new service?
And here’s my answer. We don’t just have to think about answering machines and Customer Care. Let’s think about the Companies that do Telemarketing today.
In 2016 (the latest data I was able to find online) there were about 200 Companies in this sector in Italy with 80,000 employees.
Today, thanks to Google Duplex, it will be enough to give the right information to the system to make it carry out hundreds, thousands of phone calls simultaneously, 24/24, 365 days a year.
And if the person who has been contacted gets angry, with there are problems since A.I. (artificial intelligence) has a high capacity for self-learning and especially is not subject to emotional states.
Let’s say she is not as touchy as yours truly 🙂
How can this change our work? How can this impact the processes of Communication? These are the real questions.
Not to mention that all responses, obtained by the virtual operator, can be tracked, saved, analyzed afterwards.
The artificial intelligence might understand that that User was not interested in that type of service, but might be interested in another service.
Then, being fed back into the system and being contacted again with the right answer.
Most likely in 4 or 5 years to plan a marketing, communication o social media it will be essential to consider this new technology.
Sorry but I have to go now because Google Duplex is calling me on the phone 🙂 have a good day everyone.
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