noHold’s Artificial Intelligence Solution Enters the Financial Services Industry with 292 Banks Worldwide

July 30, 2019, MILPITAS, CA – noHold has partnered with one of the longest standing financial institutions in the United States, and now almost 300 banks around the US are utilizing noHold’s Virtual Assistant technology to help their clients.

The Virtual Assistant supports customers of various banks that have questions about their services. For example, the Virtual Assistant can answer questions about refinancing, escrow, property taxes, etc. The unique aspect of the Virtual Assistant is its ability to provide customer specific data through an API connection. This includes answering questions such as, “What is my interest rate?”, “How much is my monthly payment?”, or “What is my principle balance remaining?”

On average, the Virtual Assistant helps over 5000 customers per month, and yields an answer rate of 90%. For questions the Virtual Assistant is not familiar with, an option for escalating to a live agent is provided.

“In the FinTech space, security is paramount. In the last 24 months, noHold has focused on getting security and compliance accreditations ranging from SOC2 to GDPR. Responsible personal information management is not only a legal responsibility, but a social one as well,” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, Inc.

2019 Conferences To Be On the Look Out For

Recently, noHold announced its sponsorship involvement with AVIOS' 2019 Conversational Interactions Conference. noHold's CEO, Diego Ventura, will be presenting for the third time at this conference. His talk will include information on how companies will be able to take large databases of information, and through Artificial Intelligence, add a conversational interface to any repository of information. http://www.conversationalinteraction.com/

We are excited to share another conference noHold has been following called SpeechTEK 2019, the smart customer interactions event. This conference is being held in Washington D.C. and is consider the World's leading speech technology and AI conference. http://www.speechtek.com/

Both of these conferences have speakers and attendees from major brands from all around the world that come together to discuss the impact that technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, are having on business. noHold is honored to be part of that conversation. 

Implementing Artificial Intelligence to Help Your Back-to-School Customers

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August is here, and that means thousands of students are getting ready to get back into the classroom. It also means back-to-school deals will be rolling out all month long. Year after year, back-to-school season is typically the 2nd largest consumer spending period of the year, and it is expected to continue that trend this year. 

Classrooms (and the kids learning inside them) are getting more technilogically advanced every year. Some common tech gadgets that parents, teachers, and students are getting for the school year include laptops, computers, tablets, headsets, cell phones, amazon's Student Prime membership which gets you access to top student deals, and more.

Companies can't forget to optimize their website. In 2017, it was reported that 1/3 of the family budget was spent online, and over 60% of consumers were shopping online for deals and comparisons (signs.com). Being able to give great customer service to each customer during their customer journey is very important. 

Just recently, noHold issued a press release announcing a new module to its AI platform called NLP2X. This technology makes online back-to-school shopping so much easier AND quicker. Take laptops for example. Instead of having to sift through pages and pages of laptop options on websites, a Virtual Assistant can take your natural language inquire and convert it into database commands. For example, an end user can ask, "Show me all laptops that are on sale, with 4 GB of memory or more and a 2.80 Ghz clock." In seconds, the Virtual Assistant will display the laptops that match that criteria.

Virtual Assistants are not only helpful shopping assistants, but can aslo handle the influx of support questions that typically accompanies peak seasons, too. Check out this infographic showing how noHold's Virtual Assistants have actually helped companies in various industries handle spikes in the call center. 

If you are interested in learning more about how noHold's Virtual Assistants can help your company increase customer satisfaction and grow sales, please feel free to reach out. 

www.nohold.com

noHold Becomes Silver Sponsor for AVIOS' Conversation Interactions 2019 Conference

For the past 2 years, noHold has been invited to attend AVIOS' Conversational Interactions conference, here in San Jose, CA. Diego Ventura, noHold's Founder and CEO has presented each time, sharing his knowledge on AI that he has acquired from 20+ years of experience in the space. 

This year we are doing something special. The upcoming Conversational Interactions conference, noHold is excited to announce we have partnered with AVIOS to become a Silver Sponsor for the event! 

On the website you can find various articles regarding what is going on in the industry, included a few news pieces from noHold: http://www.conversationalinteraction.com/news

We are happy to be part of this growing conference located close to our home base in San Jose, CA. If you are interested in more information or would like to register to attend, please go to www.conversationalinteractions.com

Stay tuned for more news as the conference approaches closer in March 2019. 

noHold Goes to Orlando's WATS2018 Conference

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On April 17th through the 19th, 2018, the CEO of noHold, Diego Ventura, went to a conference called WATS 2018. For those that aren't familiar with that conference, "WATS is the world's largest gathering of aviation training professionals serving airlines, regulators, training providers and training industry with more than 1,200 expected from 50+ countries." (https://www.wats-event.com/about-wats)

It was a great event, with over a thousand professionals in the aviation space attending. Multiple companies were really interested in learning more about Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Diego saw a lot of opportunities for AI to aid in the aviation training industry.

If you are interested in learning how the aviation field is planning to utilize AI, contact us via www.nohold.com.

Computer Manufacturers and ISVs Leverage noHold’s Artificial Intelligence to Help with Meltdown and Spectre Crisis

January 31, 2018, MILPITAS, CA – At the beginning of 2018, the news broke about Meltdown and Spectre, two new computer vulnerabilities that put almost all processors manufactured in the last 20 years at risk for a cyber attack. According to The New York Times, almost all devices can possess the security flaw including desktops, laptops, cloud-based computers, tablets, smartphones, and other gadgets.

This news made waves in all aspects of a business, including the less obvious impact it had on the customer support teams. noHold works with some of the leaders in PC manufacturing and in the software industry. As you can imagine, these type of companies saw a significant increase in Virtual Assistant interactions regarding the crisis. The bulk of the questions being asked were, “Am I affected?” and, “How do I fix it?”

Here is a quick summary showing just how quickly these companies were able to respond to their customers through the virtual assistant.

• At 9:15 am we got a call from some of our customer regarding the potential knowledge gap regarding the recent Spectre/Meltdown news.
• Immediately, noHold was able to look at the metrics and confirm that 5% of all contacts were about Spectre and Meltdown.
• By 10:10 am, relevant content was uploaded and live on the Virtual Assistant.
• In a matter of a week, the Virtual Assistant has successfully answered 97% of the questions regarding the crisis. The number is continuously growing as the security flaws become better known to the public.

This is a real time example of how a Virtual Assistant can help companies in the midst of a crisis. These companies were able to provide their customers with answers through their preferred channel, avoid a spike in call center interactions, and do it quickly. Diego Ventura, CEO and Founder of noHold adds, “Avoiding or helping a customer manage a crisis is one the most important things we do. I’m glad we played a role in helping customers’ better deal with this issue.”

Press Contact

Veronica Cech

Marketing Associate

vcech@nohold.com   

408.946.9200 ext. 356

All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners.

Hey Google...How was CES 2018?

As with every new year, the world's most talked about tech show, CES 2018, has come to a close. 
One of the big trends this year at CES was Digital Assistants and Artificial Intelligence. In fact, Google was reported to have dominated the conference with their showcase of Google Assistant, Google Home devices, and free donuts.

Photo credit: techcrunch.com

With Google's success at CES, demonstrating all that their voice assistant can do, I thought it would be appropriate to demonstrate yet another capability of Google Assistant. Last year, noHold created a connector that makes it possible to easily put content on Google Assistant without being a computer genius. (The key word here being easy.)

1. Sign up for an Albert account at albertai.com. 
2. Create your own Albert (bot) via a Word document or Google Doc
3. Click one button to enable your bot to work on Google Assistant. 

It is that simple.
If you are interested in more information, feel free to contact us here.
Looking forward to seeing the trends we saw from this years CES emerge. 
www.nohold.com

Tunstall and noHold Collaborate to Create a Virtual Assistant for Smart Hub™

October 31, 2017, MILPITAS, CA – noHold is excited to announce Tunstall as a new Albert customer. Tunstall is leveraging noHold’s Artificial Intelligence as a way for customers to find answers to the questions they have about their newly launched product called Smart Hub.

Tunstall, an international company that offers a range of Connected Care and Connected Health solutions, recently launched their Smart Hub product in Australia and is currently undergoing trials in Europe and the USA. The Smart Hub is Tunstall’s latest IP home unit, opening a new world of possibilities for the provision of care in the home. Using cellular technology and working on the 2/3G mobile network with a roaming SIM, the Smart Hub doesn’t require a landline, removing limitations on location.

Tunstall was in search of a way to continue to provide world class support to their growing audience and at the same time learn about the voice of their customers. That is where noHold’s AI Platform, SICURA™ QuickStart comes in. With noHold’s platform, Tunstall is able to use existing documents to easily train their own bot (Albert). Creating Albert requires no programming, and it can be deployed on multiple channels in minutes. Using Albert, Tunstall is able to deliver its customers with 24/7 access to product knowledge and support, regardless of the time zone.

“With the upcoming launch of Smart Hub and our Device Management Platform, we needed a way to communicate with our customers and guide them through the new IP set-up process.  Working with noHold we were able to easily create our own bot and quickly gain feedback using the insights from the dashboard,” said Matthew Henfrey, Group Product Marketing Executive - Telecare, Tunstall Healthcare (UK) Ltd.  

Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold adds, “Tunstall has created a world class product, and it deserves a world class support AI platform that can grow with its business. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with them and we are looking forward to future projects.”

To start creating your own bot, sign up for an Albert account at www.albertai.com.

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com or subscribe to noHold’s vlog to hear more from CEO, Diego Ventura.

About Tunstall Healthcare Group
Over the last sixty years, Tunstall has pioneered the use of technology to enable independent living, creating the Connected Healthcare industry as we know it today, and supporting more than five million people and their families across the world. Tunstall was the first to develop alarm systems for older people, and has continued to lead the market ever since, remaining at the forefront of developments such as telecare and telehealth, right up to the present day where we are harnessing the power of digital technology.

noHold’s AI Empowers Americans to Stay Informed on Presidential Executive Orders

August 31, 2017, MILPITAS, CA – noHold, the acknowledged leader in web based self-service solutions, leverages its AI platform, SICURA QuickStart, to build bots (Albert) that can answer questions about Presidential Executive Orders.  Now, regular citizens can understand the details of an Executive Order without having to read it in its entirety. Visit www.albertinthehouse.com to see Executive Orders transformed into bots from four different presidents.

Albert can answer questions like “What is the purpose of this order?” or “Does this order supersede any other order?”  Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and an Inference Engine (IE), Albert is able to identify the answer to your question on your own terms, eliminating the hassle of manually sifting through the entire document. This method allows people to feel confident they are getting objective facts straight from official documents.

This concept continues to validate that there is a place for Artificial Intelligence almost anywhere. “We felt it was our civic duty to take our expertise in Artificial Intelligence and use it to empower people with uncensored knowledge that can be used to benefit the country” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold. Click here to hear more from Diego in a vlog discussing these Virtual Assistants.

The process to turn an Executive Order into an Albert is straightforward. Anyone can do it.

1. Sign up for a free Albert account at www.albertai.com.

2. Visit the White House site (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders) and copy and paste the desired Executive Order into a Word Document.

3. Upload to QuickStart, and launch.

These bots will soon be available on Amazon’s Alexa, as well.

About noHold, Inc.

noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based Self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions – real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer support into cognitive customer interactions. noHold customers include Cisco, Dell, Intel and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at http://www.nohold.com.

noHold Recognized by Gartner as a 2017 Cool Vendor in AI for Conversational Platforms

June 20, 2017, MILPITAS, CA – noHold, a leader in web based self-service solutions, was named Cool Vendor in AI for Conversational Platforms, 2017 by Gartner. The Cool Vendor series is used to discover emerging innovative SMB vendors with interesting and highly original technology that impact their respective markets in a big way. This is the first year Gartner published a Cool Vendor report for this category.

According to the report, “The use of conversational platforms is a much-hyped topic, with chatbots, assistants, messaging platforms and other natural-language processing (NLP) uses vying for attention. The five Cool Vendors in this note show the breadth of offerings available and are representatives of the cutting-edge innovation in their respective fields.” (Cool Vendors for AI in Conversational Platforms, 2017, 30 May 2017) noHold’s latest platform, SICURA QuickStart, is an example of that type of revolutionary technology being put forward. This platform proves that interactive and diagnostic chatbots can be built directly using Microsoft Word or Google Docs, even if you are not a programmer.

The report goes on to discuss some of the features of SICURA QuickStart that are also outlined in a previous press release. noHold is proud to be part of a short list of companies that have demonstrated innovation in this category.

Furthermore, this is noHold’s second Cool Vendor recognition by Gartner, previously being acknowledged as a Cool Vendor in Business Process Services, 2015. It is a great honor to be accepting a Cool Vendor designation for a second year. noHold is proud to be a pioneer in the chatbot industry, and still continue to be known as a visionary in the space.

You can download the full report titled, “Cool Vendors in AI for Conversational Platforms, 2017” by clicking here.

The Next Web Interviews noHold's CEO for Insider Knowledge on What's Going on in the World of AI

Article of the week: The Next Web's Josiah Motley wrote an article about how AI is transforming customer service. He asked Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, to share a few of his thoughts on the topic. He goes into the increase in consumer interaction with AI (whether we know it or not), and, the question that gets asked all the time, what does that mean for our jobs. 

"I see Virtual Assistants [VAs]  for one, as a way to primarily improve the customer experience and, two, augmenting the capabilities of existing employees – rather than simply taking their jobs. VAs help users find information more easily. Most of the VA users are people who were going to the Web to self-serve anyway, we are just making it easier for them to find what they are looking for and yes, prevent escalations to the call center."

Read the full article here: https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/06/07/ai-transforming-customer-service/#.tnw_TwuTok8B

Local Initiatives: 2017 Best of Milpitas Award for Software Company

Milpitas has been home to noHold since its inception in 1999. We are fortune to have our headquarters in the heart of the Silicon Valley where innovation and talent are all around us on a daily basis. Just this month, the Milpitas Business Recognition awarded noHold as a winner for the 2017 Best of Milpitas Award. 

"Each year, the Milpitas Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Milpitas area a great place to live, work and play."

To read the official press release, please click here. Thank you to the city of Milpitas for the recognition!
www.nohold.com

Forrester Invites CEO of noHold to Discuss Intelligent Assistants and the Digital Enterprise

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Going to be in the Chicago area next week? On May 8th, Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold will be participating in Forrester's Digital Transformation 2017 event in Chicago, IL. Diego was asked to be interviewed in part of the new AI Summit portion of the event. Here is a little background information on the Summit...

"Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and related data-driven technologies have moved to the forefront of the business technology agenda. Together, they promise real-time analysis, immediate adaptability, and scalable automation. But the actual implementation of AI varies dramatically from function to function — and there are unique challenges to each application. 

In this program, co-located with Forrester's Digital Transformation Forum, we will examine how AI systems are transforming business operations, rewriting business strategy, and creating new engines for rapid, disruptive growth. We will look at best practices in AI for both business and technology professionals in:

• Core AI systems.
• Business intelligence and analytics.
• Commerce and payments.
• Internet of things, robotics, and automation."

(Digital Transformation - AI SUMMIT)

Andrew Hogan, Analyst of Forrester will conduct the interview with Diego talking about Intelligent Assistants and the Digital Enterprise. 

Registration is required to attend, so please click here to register. 

nohold.com

albertai.com

How-To Guide to Customizing Albert's User Interface

As you may already know, noHold introduced QuickStart PRO a couple months ago enabling small businesses and business units within large enterprises to create and customize their own bots quickly and easily. No programming skills needed! One of the benefits to upgrading is the ability to customize the look and feel of Albert on your own terms. Similarly to how easy it is to keep Albert's content up to date, you can also update the user interface whenever using the styling options under settings. 

As a little tip, I wanted to share a short tutorial video to show you just how simple using PRO is, and demonstrate exactly how to customize your bot.

If you are interested in upgrading to PRO, please click here or if you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email.

Have a great weekend! Cheers
www.albertai.com
www.nohold.com

Are You Ready for Cisco Spark's Launch Event?

"It's not everyday you get to leave your mark on an industry."

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We are excited to be attending the launch of Cisco's latest version of Spark. Attendees are invited to learn more about what Cisco is doing to revolutionize the way people are meeting. "In San Francisco on January 24, 2017, Chuck Robbins, CEO and Rowan Trollope, SVP and GM of Cisco's IoT and Applications will unveil groundbreaking Cisco Spark innovations that will completely change the way people create, share, and get work done together."(http://demand.cisco.com/SparkLocalLaunchEventsEAST)

Kudos Cisco! We are excited to hear all the innovative things you have been working on.

www.nohold.com

Catch noHold's CEO speaking at Conversational Interaction Conference

Greetings!

Wanted to give you guys the heads up that noHold's CEO, Diego Ventura, will be speaking at the Conversational Interaction Conference in San Jose, California. On Monday, January 30th, Diego will be presenting "Connecting Humans and the Internet of Things." In his talk he will be discussing the significant impact Virtual Assistants are having on our lives. He will answer questions such as how Virtual Assistants can be leveraged at every stage of the product life cycle, not just support, and how Virtual Assistants will improve the way humans connect to the Internet of Things. 

After 17 years of being of major contributor in the Virtual Assistant space, Diego is excited to give an insiders perspective on where the market is, and where it is heading. "The CI Conference will discuss how companies and application developers can take advantage of this trend - including resources for creating bots and digital assistants, delivering customer service in natural language, best practices, examples of deployed solutions, and other commercial opportunities generated by the trend."

If you are interested in hearing Diego, and other acknowledged leaders in this space, visit www.conversationalinteraction.com to register and reserve your spot for this 2-Day conference. 
We hope to see you there! Cheers!
#CIcon2017
www.nohold.com

Chatbots Are Not Just For Enterprises Anymore...

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Remember the blog, The Industry Recognizes Need to Democratize Virtual Assistants?

To refresh your memory really quick, Esteban Kolsky, someone who has been following the chatbot space since before they were known as chatbots, wrote a piece describing some key points on how the industry can move toward democratizing AI/chatbots. "In that post, I claim that simplicity and democratization of the resources inherent to chatbot’s world can be used by small business easily to fulfill their needs.  I also make the statement that if this works for small businesses then anyone and anything can leverage chatbots.  My hope is that we can all, for professional or personal reasons, create and manage an army of chatbots that, easily and with limited or no maintenance, will allow us to focus on the real needs we have and simplify the easy interactions with others." 

Just last month, Esteban wrote another blog titled Democratizing Large Enterprise Chatbots for Small Businesses. Here he recognized our efforts put forth in making the creation of a chatbot simpler, cheaper and easier to deploy with the launch of our new product Albert.  Albert is also being acknowledged by major publications such as Forbes, TheNextWeb, PCWorld and more. 

Lots of people have signed up for the Beta program of Albert, and it is receiving tons of positive feedback from small businesses to individuals using it for personal projects. As for the future, we are looking to make more features available such as UI customization and creating multiple chatbots on one account.

We are just glad that people like Esteban are recognizing this movement and embracing it! Cheers!
www.albertai.com

Industry Recognizes Need to Democratize Virtual Assistants

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I wanted to take some time to share this article I found on LinkedIn. Its talks about how the industry can and should start moving towards democratizing AI, specifically Virtual Assistants (or better known as bots). A few key lessons mentioned in the article that will help chatbots become simpler to create for everyone are: 

1. It's about building simple
2. It's about cost
3. It's about results

Check out the article here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chatbots-small-business-esteban-kolsky?published=t

It is exciting to see that the industry is finally catching up to what we have been saying for while. For more information about noHold and how we are working towards democratizing AI, please contact us via the web. 

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving holiday from our noHold family to yours, Cheers!

noHold Implementation Manager, Andrea Sahli, To Speak at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference

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If you don't already know, the world's largest conference for women technologist is happening next week! From October 19th to the 21st the 2016 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference will be taking place in Houston, Texas.

noHold is very proud to share that our Senior Implementation Manager, Andrea Sahli, will be speaking at this years event. With over 14 years of experience working with Artificial Intelligence at noHold, she will be sharing her knowledge on the evolution of Intelligent Virtual Assistants. See picture below for full description of talk. 

This will be an exciting conference, honoring many talented women in computing. Congratulations Andrea for being a part of them! 
www.nohold.com

Dreamforce 2016 Announces Einstein, But noHold Introduced Albert Years Ago

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Dreamforce 2016, one of the largest tech conferences in the world came to a close last week. It was exciting to see industry professionals come together in San Francisco to connect, learn and grow. There has been many interesting things that came about from Dreamforce, but one of the biggest announcements from last week has to be the introduction of Einstein. 

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Salesforce has jumped on the Artificial Intelligence train, acquiring numerous machine learning companies over the past couple of years to create what is being considered the 'smartest CRM system' out there. In short, it is a product that helps sales people narrow in on the most promising leads with the use of Artificial Intelligence.

While Salesforce is starting to revolutionize the way CRM systems operate with Artificial Intelligence, noHold has been using Artificial Intelligence to change the way customers engage with customers for over 15 years. We always believe imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Back in 2012, noHold started using the name Albert for one of our Virtual Assistants aimed at helping the Help Desk. Albert after Albert Einstein, that is. Now, we are moving forward with the name Albert as a product that will make it easier for anyone to create their own Virtual Assistant. Come back around Thanksgiving 2016 to learn more about Albert.

Cheers! 
www.nohold.com