Daimler hires Soul Machine's lifelike Avatar to answer customer queries

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By Matthew Griffin Robo Revolution 25th March 2018

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Bots are evolving and increasingly it’s going to get more difficult to tell bots from real people, whether they’re just text bots or, in this case, life like looking avatars.

New Zealand based company Soul Machines, the company behind a sophisticated high definition digital avatar that, to all intents and purposes could probably fool most people into thinking they were interacting with and talking with a real customer service agent, have announced they’ve signed none other than European car maker Daimler as their latest customer.

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Daimler Financial Services is using a Soul Machines avatar dubbed Sarah to provide personalised assistance to customers of the company’s services, including car financing, leasing and insurance.

Soul Machines and Daimler demonstrated Sarah at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and it’s the latest in a string of adoptions for the Auckland company’s technology. Just a week ago Soul Machines, which is a spinout from the University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute, announced that UK bank RBS was trialling its technology to answer customer queries.

Take a look for yourself

Late last year Soul Machines announced they were developing digital human interface for Autodesk’s customer assistance chatbot called the Autodesk Virtual Agent, or AVA for short.

Soul Machines says all these applications are built on top of IBM Watson to “provide a customer experience that goes way beyond the traditional AI user interface of chatbots and voice assistants.”

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According to Soul Machines Sarah combines artificial and emotional intelligence for “a completely new experience that redefines the link between man and machine.”

They also claim “Sarah will be able to assist customers similar to a personal concierge, with the goal of offering the right information at the right time with a convenient and emotionally intelligent, digital touchpoint,” and looking at what they’ve developed already, let alone where the technology will be in a years’ time, I’d say customer service agents everywhere should watch out…

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.