Gartner Symposium Regarded Xiaoi as a "Conversational+" System -- Connecting Everything

On Gartner Symposium in Orlando, October 18^th, Gartner VP and leading authority in information technology, David W. Cearley, made a presentation on "Conversational System: The Post-App Digital Mesh Experience" in "The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017"session. In his presentation, he said that Xiaoi, Siri of Apple, Cortana of Microsoft and Echo of Amazon were world-wide famous conversational systems. Their chatbots and personal assistants play the role of conversational intermediaries with intelligent cloud services, and this is just the beginning.

In his presentation, he used a very interesting term: "Conversational +". In an era where bots economy will likely replace APP and becomes the next gold rush, "Conversational +"—integrating conversational capabilities into all types of services and applications—implies that chatbot will become the only entrance to the Internet instead of searching.

Among the enterprises mentioned in Mr. Cearley's presentation, Microsoft announced its "conversation as platform" strategy, and released Bots development architecture, which allows developers to integrate smart chatbots into their own applications; Apple provided Siri SDKs and opened related APIs to third parties on its WWDC 2016; Alexa in Echo of Amazon was also opened to third parties; and Xiaoi had opened its cloud platform since 2012, and had released an intelligent robot operating system which deliver cloud-based interactive capabilities to various robots. In world-wide scenario, renowned companies in the AI industries (Google and Facebook included) had all chosen to open cloud-based intelligent interactive service capabilities. These capabilities can be presented virtually, and also can be integrated to all hardware. A conversational user interface (CUI) connects users and applications. Users only need to express their needs in natural language, and can replace clicking, touching and buttons with natural dialogue. Everything has a brain from the cloud, and there will be no obstacles between human and machines. David W. Cearley regarded it as a desirable interactive experience in the post-APP era.

This is also the reason why bots attract so much attention and become the core strategy of AI companies.

"The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017" session is one of the most influential Gartner sessions which is presented to world-wide CIOs and CTOs in Gartner Symposium in 8 different countries each year. 

Gartner, which has over 1000 industry analysts around the globe, has a very clear vision for the technology trends world-wide. After getting to know about Xiaoi in 2011, Gartner has recommended Xiaoi and its services to global enterprises. In Gartner Symposium 2015, Gartner regarded Xiaoi not only as a product and application vendor, but also a smart machine platform and framework provider. Xiaoi released an intelligent robot operating system, iBot OS, at the end of 2015. iBot OS is an intelligent capabilities software platform facing smart robots and smart hardware. It is also a comprehensive intelligent ecosystem including intelligent interactive capabilities engines (cloud-based and on premises), cloud computing and big data, cloud-based plugin, knowledge management and learning system, smart hardware module and multiple solutions. The operating system can deliver cloud-based capabilities to robots, smart hardware and traditional manufactory industries.

After one year of experiment in the market, Xiaoi has various applications in hardware and physical robot, except for providing smart customer services to enterprises and government.

The first physical smart robot in banking, Ina, plays a role of lobby manager in offline banks, and response to inquiries via natural language. She is also applied in communications industries: she is now being placed in offline stores of China Unicom to provide information and other related services.

Cooky is the first physical smart robot designed for smart city programs. It can be applied in governance, social affairs, healthcare and other domains. At present, it is used in Shanghai's First Maternity Hospital to provide guidance and assistance.

We are embracing a wave of AI. Whether it is bots mania, open source, mania, platform mania, or foreseeable "conversational +", it's all about a positive vision of robots coming into people's daily life. When enterprises like Xiaoi are considering AI on the premises of application and business value, we are real enjoying the convenience coming along with robots.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161019/430402

SOURCE Xiaoi