Taco Bell's Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews told The Wall Street Journal that deploying the voice AI has had its challenges. "Sometimes it lets me down, but sometimes it really surprises me," he said. He said the firm was "learning a lot" - but he would now think carefully about where to use AI going forwards, including not using it at drive-throughs. In particular, Mr Matthews said, there are times when humans are better placed to take orders, especially when the restaurants get busy. "We'll help coach teams on when to use voice AI and when it's better to monitor or step in," he said.

Next time you're craving a chalupa supreme, you might not be ordering from a person. Taco Bell is expanding its program for using AI voice recognition in drive-thrus. After testing the technology in more than 100 locations in 13 states, the fast food chain's parent company aims to add voice-powered AI capabilities to hundreds more Taco Bell drive-thrus in the US by the end of the year. "With over two years of fine tuning and testing the drive-thru Voice AI technology, we're confident in its effectiveness in optimizing operations and enhancing customer satisfaction," said Lawrence Kim, chief innovation officer for Yum! Brands. The company also owns KFC and is currently testing Voice AI in five locations for that chain in Australia. It sounds a little goofy, but in practice, this is an application of AI that people who aren't early adopters might encounter in the wild.

Voice AI is no longer just a futuristic idea. Large corporations and e-commerce giants are already using it in their customer service departments to improve agents' customer interactions. Don't let customer service let your business down. With the adoption of voice AI, enterprises are no longer bound by technological limitations. Turn to voice AI to help you streamline customer support without sacrificing quality.

Check out the on-demand sessions from the Low-Code/No-Code Summit to learn how to successfully innovate and achieve efficiency by upskilling and scaling citizen developers. The assistant mimicked realistic and nuanced human speech patterns (complete with "ums" and "ahhs") as it made an appointment for a haircut and booked a table at a restaurant while in fluent conversation with a real person. Although the audience erupted in rapturous applause at the achievement, in the Twittersphere and beyond, observers were quick to question what they were hearing. Some called the likeness "scary," and others felt like a deception was at play -- with the human on the other end of the line completely unaware that they were speaking with a bot. But that's unfortunate because the truth of the matter is that voice AI has tremendous potential to empower consumers and deliver value to the businesses that deploy it -- provided there is a clear understanding of its purpose and of its limitations.

In homes all across the world, devices like Amazon Alexa integrate to make normal activities easier and more convenient. From turning on lights and playing music to answering questions and making to-do lists, the skills demonstrated daily have become a must-have for millions. Similar technology is exploding in popularity and availability among HMI in automotive too. For drivers, it's more than simply a convenience to have voice-controlled features. Voice AI can also aid in making roads safer for everyone.

Voice AI is expected to reduce global call centre labour costs by as much as US$80 billion by 2026, according to Gartner. However, Australia's adoption of conversational AI for customer service remains relatively low compared to other countries. "Nine-in-ten Australians are now smartphone users, with Siri, Google or Alexa at their fingertips," said Kun Wu, Founder and Managing Director of AI Rudder, a leading voice AI provider in the Asian Pacific (APAC). Voice AI technologies have enhanced consumers' lives in terms of communication, media use, entertainment and information searches. Given this high consumer penetration, Wu says the potential exists for the Australian customer service industry to follow APAC markets in using voice AI to deliver high-quality service.

Top Gun: Maverick has proven to be a massive success for Tom Cruise, Paramount Pictures, and everyone involved. If you've watched the movie by now, you'll probably agree with most of us that it's an excellent follow-up to the original film from 1986. What you might not know is that Val Kilmer's voice in the movie was brought to life with voice AI. When the original Top Gun was released in 1986, Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise's chemistry on-screen as Iceman and Maverick was an instant hit. Revisiting that story without Kilmer's Iceman would have been disappointing for many fans and even for Kilmer himself.

Technology platforms have tremendous potential to drive social progress. The financial technology (fintech) industry epitomises this, particularly in Southeast Asia -- where almost half of a 400 million-strong adult population do not have a bank account; while 90 million hold a bank account but lack sufficient access to investment products, insurance or credit. The significance of enabling access to financial services cannot be underscored -- financial access underpins a better quality of life, by helping families and businesses plan for everything from long-term goals to unexpected emergencies. With access to bank accounts, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as credit and insurance, to start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, which can improve the overall quality of their lives. In fact, the World Bank considers financial inclusion a key enabler to reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. Southeast Asia is a hotbed for growth and innovation and fintech Promisingly, the past years have seen a boom in fintech startups across Southeast Asia, with growth unlikely to slow down -- according to a report from UOB, fintech funding in the region jumped more than three times in the first nine months of 2021 compared with full-year 2020, reaching a record $3.5 billion!

There is not anything extra personal than your very own health and well-being. While receiving treatment, patients regularly face excessive challenges. They rightly anticipate personalization, however despite the countless quantities of data, studies, and clinical breakthroughs which have dramatically progressed the first-class of care, patients often go away missed news centers feeling like a number. According to McKinsey, patients expect the identical digital stories they're used to in retail, coverage, and banking. Those industries have lengthy adopted innovations and methods that permit them to apply technology to beautify the revel and positioned the healthcare industry. Patients who've grown accustomed to such advantages now require a similar commitment from their ignored information carriers and payers in healthcare.

We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - August 3. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. This week, Nvidia announced a slew of AI-focused hardware and software innovations during its March GTC 2022 conference. The company unveiled the Grace CPU Superchip, a data center processor designed to serve high-performance compute and AI applications. And it detailed the H100, the first in a new line of GPU hardware aimed at accelerating AI workloads including training large natural language models. But one announcement that slipped under the radar was the general availability of Nvidia's Riva 2.0 SDK, as well as the company's Riva Enterprise managed offering. Both can be deployed for building speech AI applications and point to the growing market for speech recognition in particular.