The human touch apparently doesn't mean as much as it once did. A new report says consumers are rapidly embracing automated assistants as the underlying technology becomes more powerful. The Capgemini Research Institute today released a report titled: "Smart Talk: How organizations and consumers are embracing voice and chat assistants." While the technology still faces challenges, the report paints a generally rosy picture and concludes that users increasingly prefer voice and chat assistants to humans. "This research establishes that conversational assistants are the future of customer interactions, valued by consumers for their convenience and by companies for the operational efficiencies they enable," said Mark Taylor, head of customer engagement at Capgemini Invent, in a statement accompanying the report.

Can you tell us a bit about MindMeld? MindMeld is a leading Conversational AI company, now offering Deep-Domain Conversational AI. The company has pioneered the AI technology behind the emerging generation of intelligent voice and chat assistants and currently powers advanced conversational experiences used by some of the world's largest media companies, government agencies, automotive manufacturers, and global retailers. MindMeld's customers and investors include Google, Samsung, Intel, Telefonica, Liberty Global, IDG, USAA, Uniqlo, Spotify, In-Q-Tel and others. What does Deep-Domain Conversational AI mean?