Artificial Solutions Cites Persistence as Key Component In The Future of Personal Assistants

LAS VEGAS, May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ShowStoppers CTIA -- Artificial Solutions (www.artificial-solutions.com), the natural language interaction (NLI) specialist that enables users to have a meaningful, humanlike interaction with technology, asserts that persistence is a critical component in the future of personal assistant apps.

The latest persistence capabilities of its personal assistant app Indigo (www.hello-indigo.com) allow users to pick up a conversation where it last left off – even as they move from a tablet, mobile device or work computer.  Artificial Solutions believes that combining the ability to persist conversations with an artificial memory and the ability to understand a user's preferences, likes and dislikes is the next key step in the journey that will ultimately allow people to control all aspects of technology in their lives through a single assistant app that is personalized to the user.

Since personal assistant apps started to appear on the scene two years ago, many users have become reliant on them for travel, weather, and other reminders throughout the day. However, the majority of these are command-driven; they need short, command style inputs to operate them.  Indigo already takes this to the next level by adding the use of natural language, where by user talks normally to the mobile, as opposed to a series of commands, whilst at the same time expanding the assistant's understanding of an individual's user preferences.  It also allows for other intelligent features such as topic switching, for instance enabling the user to interrupt making a diary entry, to check the weather for that day and still go back to where they left off making the appointment.

Persistence, remembering the conversation and user preferences across devices and platforms, allows the user to take this a step further such as finding a location on a tablet at home, but asking their smartphone once in the car for directions, without having to give any additional explanation. Transpose these ideas to the near future where many more devices and appliances are internet enabled and it's easy to see why persistence is a vital component to the next generation of personal assistant apps and a key step in the journey towards a truly ubiquitous personal assistant.

"To date, so called mobile 'personal assistants' have been anything but personal. They've been developed to run on one device or platform and are fixed to that eco-system.  But today I have a tablet, smartphone, office laptop, PC, smartTV, a car with more technology inside than under the hood – and I want a mobile assistant that understands me, my preferences and my likes and dislikes that can follow me across devices.  That's where we see the world going and this latest capability of persistence that we've built into Indigo is the next step on our journey," says Laurence Flynn, CEO of Artificial Solutions.  

Artificial Solutions released Indigo last month, launching it on Android, Windows Phone 8 and browsers. Indigo can do everything expected of a personal assistant app, but unlike her competitors she can remember preferences and the context of conversations as users switch between their devices. This allows users to take Indigo with them as they move between devices and users can even continue a conversation across devices making Indigo truly personal to the individual, not tied to the device.  Indigo also features many of the intelligent capabilities already available in Artificial Solutions' enterprise virtual assistants such as memory, contextual understanding and the ability to handle conversation interruptions.

For more information about the beta version of Indigo visit www.hello-indigo.com or download from Google Play Store http://ow.ly/kn2V0  or Windows Phone Store http://ow.ly/kn2TU

For a demonstration of Indigo's capabilities visit http://youtu.be/aOVG2Bbw-Lo 

About Artificial Solutions

Artificial Solutions is the leading specialist in Natural Language Interaction (NLI). The company's patented technology enables people to hold two-way meaningful conversations with applications and services running on computers, mobile technology and other electronic devices in a humanlike, intelligent manner.

Typically deployed as web-based Virtual Assistants for customer service and sales, and as embedded speech-enabled applications for mobile computing, Artificial Solutions enables organizations to increase customer satisfaction and direct revenues, whilst reducing costs. Platform and device independent, Artificial Solutions' NLI technology is available in 21 languages and includes powerful analytics that deliver valuable insight into customers' needs and behavior.

With development centers in Barcelona, Hamburg, London and Stockholm and offices across Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America, Artificial Solutions' technology is deployed by hundreds of public and private sector organizations and used by millions of people every year.  For more information, visit www.artificial-solutions.com    

SOURCE Artificial Solutions