Using Conversational AI to get the most out of your Enterprise Database

The conference is almost here! Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, will be presenting on March 11 at 1:15 PM PST. He's talk is titled, "Using Conversational AI to get the most out of your Enterprise Database." Here is a short summary on the topic:

Most enterprises rely on powerful databases to manage customer relationships, inventory, HR information, etc. But gathering information from them is not always easy and often requires the use of predefined reports or the help of IT specialists.  What if you could simply say: "show me customers in California who have spent at least $500K in the last 12 months and that are non-profit".  It is now possible to create simple straightforward conversational interfaces on top of the databases that govern our lives.  The application of this technology is not limited only to the enterprise, but it can be used also by individuals while shopping, or booking the next vacation: "what laptops do you have with an i7 processor, that cost less than $1250 and with a 2.8Ghz clock?"

Diego will also participate in a keynote panel: Building a Digital Assistant or Chatbot on March 12th. For more details please visit, http://www.conversationalinteraction.com/program

Looking forward to seeing some of you there! 

AI World Conference & Expo 2018

AI World is getting closer. Next week, thousands of attendees will gather to learn how to use Artificial Intelligence to build a competitive advantage. noHold's CEO, Diego Ventura, will be speaking at the conference about automating customer service and technical support in call centers. Below is a short message from Diego: 

Hope to see you there!
www.nohold.com

noHold's CEO, Diego Ventura, Will Be Speaking at AIWorld's Conference in December 2018

AIWorld's third annual conference and expo is right around the corner! Over 3000 business and technology executives from all over will be coming together in Boston, Massachusetts on December 3^rd through the 5^th to learn how AI has impacted, and will continue to impact the enterprise.

Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, Inc., is honored to be invited to speak at AIWorld. His session is on December 5^th during the 2:05 PM time slot. With almost two decades of experience with Artificial Intelligence, Diego has become a pioneer when it comes to automated support and Virtual Assistants. At AIWorld, he will be joining a discussion panel talking about how to automate customer service and technical support in the call center.

noHold has help many companies reduce Average Handle Time at the call center, while maintaining excellent customer service with the use of Artificial intelligence. Check out the following resources for more detail:

• Business Case: Agent facing Virtual Assistant
• Be a Call Center Superhero
• Managing Peaks in Call Center Volume

Diego Ventura Joins the Discussion Panel at Finastra's Business Forum

Source

noHold's CEO and Founder, Diego Ventura, is excited to be part of a panel discussion at Finastra's Business Forum client conference. Finastra is the third largest financial technology company in the world. This exclusive event welcomes select senior banking professionals to network with Finastra executives and participate in thought-leadership sessions. It is a two day event that will be taking place on Sept 24th and 25th in Kohler, Wisconsin. 

During the panel discussion, Diego will join on stage a few select experts in the industry to discuss the importance and advantages of APIs for the financial industry.

For more information about Finastra Business Forum, you can follow this link: https://www.finastra.com/news-events/events/finastra-business-forums-fall-2018-wi 

Learn How to Create an Alexa Skill or a Google Action in Minutes

noHold is proud to announce Diego Ventura, Founder and CEO of noHold, will be taking the stage at the 2018 Conversational Interactions conference hosted by AVIOS. This conference is all about connecting humans and machines. It will largely center around Natural Language Processing, Virtual Assistants (bots or digital assistants), and the various channels customer conversations can happen on. For more information about the conference, visit www.conversationalinteractions.com.

The event is being held close to noHold's headquarters in San Jose, California on February 5th and 6th. To catch Diego's presentation, be sure to be there on February 5th between 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM PST. He will be talking about, "The Easiest Way to Create an Alexa Skill or Google Action." It was a great opportunity to be able to speak at the conference last year, and it is an honor to be invited back to present again.

It was a great opportunity to be able to speak at the conference last year, and it is an honor to be invited back to present again.

To register for the conference, click here.
Cheers
www.nohold.com

Andy Paul invites CEO of noHold to discuss Virtual Assistants from a Sales Perspective

Recently, Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, was asked to guest star on the top-rated podcast, Accelerate!, hosted by Andy Paul. Andy is known as the go-to resource for the best sales advice online. Diego's 20+ years of experience in the AI space, gave him a unique perspective on sales. 

You can listen to the podcast at www.andypaul.com.

Some key takeaways include: 

• Diego says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is getting introductions to the right people (decision-makers). It is hard to do with email.
• Diego explains how a virtual agent or assistant differs from a knowledge base. A virtual assistant helps the user get to the most specific solution as quickly as possible within the framework of a dialog rather than a search.
• NoHold is partnering with companies like Google and Amazon to accomplish voice recognition and speech synthesis with natural language processing (NLP).
• Diego points out potential applications for online sales. Besides speech technology, it requires NLP-to-SQL (Structured Query Language) technology. This may be ready on some sites for 2017 Christmas shopping!
• Diego mentions two current noHold projects: a customer-facing application (the Sales Advisor), and an agent-facing application. Diego covers the details of the Sales Advisor and gives examples.
• Diego discusses levels of AI in virtual assistants. He gives examples of chatbots built from user documents, including executive orders from four U.S. presidents.
• Diego address the future of AI in sales and its impact. It is an excellent tool to augment sales capabilities. Diego gives an example for the enterprise, the Marketing Advisor, for augmented selling in groups of 500 SDRs.

noHold's CEO Recognized as a Digital Transformation Leader

It is always great to be recognized for making an impact on an industry you are passionate about. Recently, a blog published by WalkMe.com named noHold's CEO, Diego Ventura, as a top digital transformation leader. The blog goes on to say,

"Diego Ventura makes the Digital Transformation Leaders List for his work on helping people communicate with computers. He made headway as the CEO of STEFRA by laying the groundwork for video conferencing technology such as Skype. Today, Ventura leads noHold, recently recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in AI. noHold uses AI to create virtual agents for customer support and more. Business Insider cites both STEFRA and noHold as examples of Ventura being ahead of his time." Blog.walkme.com

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

Photo Credit

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

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

Exclusive Insight on the Internet of Things Coupled with Artificial Intelligence

The Internet of Things (IoT) has continuously developed and matured throughout the past few years. And with 2016 being an explosive year for Artificial Intelligence/ chat bots, coupling IoT and AI is going to have a profound impact on our daily lives. 

Join Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, on June 23 at 6:30 PM PST as he presents two specific cases in which IoT and AI work together to simplify our lives. This event is sponsored by BAIA Executives and will take place at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di San Francisco (601 Van Ness Avenue, Suite F, San Francisco, CA). For more information on the event, please click here. You are also able to RSVP via the meetup webpage.

"Everybody will have a butler at their beck and call, just like Tony Stark in Iron Man. This will open new business opportunities and business models. It will change the way we shop and consume the products we purchase."

www.nohold.com

Creating a Virtual Assistant Made Easy

I am excited to share with you a project we have been working on that will change the way content is created and made available. We have crafted a way for anyone (even non-programmers) to turn bulky user manuals into interactive Virtual Assistants.

All you have to do is fill in the Microsoft Word template (provided by noHold) with information on a certain topic, upload the document to our A.I. platform, and then the platform will automatically generate a Virtual Assistant according to your input. Typically, it takes about 6 weeks to create a Virtual Assistant from scratch, but with the use of this template, it can be done within days.

Check out the video for more on this project.

I am eager to see how this will affect the future of Virtual Assistants, and A.I. in general. Feel free to contact noHold for more information about creating your own Virtual Assistant or message me on LinkedIn.

Best,

Diego

The Search Paradigm is Shifting, Are You Ready?

For the past two decades, the Search paradigm has dominated the person-computer interaction. Companies such as Google have led the way with their minimalistic UI we all know, but we have noticed that this traditional Search paradigm leaves the responsibility of sorting through a long list of possible answers in the hands of end users, often resulting in a cumbersome experience.

This year, the person-computer interaction will shift from the traditional Search paradigm to a next-generation Search experience. There are 4 key ingredients to improving the end user Search experience: N.I.C.K.

1. Natural Language Processor (NLP)

2. Interactive

3. Context sensitive  

4. Knowledgeable

We call this new paradigm the Concierge. Check out this week’s video to learn more about N.I.C.K. 

To find out if N.I.C.K. (the concierge approach) works for your company, contact us to organize an A/B testing between your existing search paradigm and N.I.C.K. 

Best wishes in the coming year, 

Diego

You Don't Have to Boil the Ocean!

When considering implementing a Virtual Assistant (VA), it is important to remember...you don't have to boil the ocean. What this means is, a VA does not have to start by covering every piece of knowledge in your company. There is no set rule on the amount of content that needs to be added to a good VA  because it can work on incomplete and empirical knowledge. 

We are biased towards starting with less content and letting the metrics tell us what is most important to your audience. In essence, smaller implementations will cost less and bring in results faster. Check out this video to learn more. 

So, how do you know what content you should be focusing on? We have found that EZIntel is an effective strategy for zeroing in on what your audience is looking for. Click here to schedule a call to learn more about it.

Cheers, 

Diego

One Year Later: Revisiting with Diego Ventura, CEO, noHold

Introduction

One year ago this month, Connected World interviewed Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold about virtual agents, the IoT (Internet of Things), and AI (artificial intelligence). In the year since that interview, the pace of developments in these areas, and for noHold as well, has been blistering.

noHold has announced a number of important developments since June of 2014, clear indicators of the company’s vitality and its commitment to innovation.

Some of the key announcements were the continuation of its longstanding relationship with ViewSonic, and the launch of a collaborative project with Cisco to develop the next generation of AI-enabled virtual assistants. This project, code named SARA for “Services Automated Resolution Agent,” is intended to “revolutionize the interaction by integrating with sophisticated back office systems and deeper understanding of complex problem resolution.”

One of the more exciting projects Ventura’s team has launched is “Virtual Volunteer,” a program designed to give charitable organizations a means to supplement a diminishing base of human volunteers, the ones who make the calls to secure contributions from donors.

Connected World’s Tim Lindner, who originally interviewed Ventura, caught up with him recently to see just what noHold has been doing this past year.

For the full interview with Diego Ventura, please follow this link to Connected World Magazine: http://connectedworld.com/one-year-later-revisiting-with-diego-ventura-ceo-nohold/

Tim Cook Says, "People Want to Relate to Their Phone in a Different Way"

About two years ago, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was interviewed and asked about Siri. His response was, "I think Siri has proven to us that people want to relate to their phone in a different way. Yes it can be broader and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here. I think you're going to be happy with where it's going. We're doubling down on it." (wired.co.uk)

Fast forward 2 years, we can tell that they are doing some serious upgrading to Siri technology to keep up with the competition. As we mentioned yesterday, Siri has some interesting new features to appear in the updated iOS8. Back in August, Apple submitted a patent application for a Siri-like virtual assistant for Mac's (appleinsider.com). And now, they are expanding their Siri office in Boston to accommodate their continued work on speech recognition technology. "Earlier this year a report in June suggested Apple could be looking to replace Nuance as the speech recognition component used for Siri pointing to several new hires at the company." (9to5mac.com)

Siri, and other Virtual Assistants alike, provide users with a sense of connection to their devices, making it more personal. It has completely changed the way humans interact with not only our phones, but technology in general. Virtual Agents are being used more and more for customer support (helping users solve their own problems), sales (giving users knowledge and recommendations based on specific, personalized information), and care (letting users know information about their shipments/orders).

Do you agree that Siri has changed the way we relate with our devices? Imagine a life with a more intuitive and interactive Virtual Assistant; similar to a trusted 'pal' that can predict your needs/wants, give you relevant information in real time, and assist you with things such as scheduling, shopping, and controlling other devices. Siri might not be there yet, but it seems that the future of Virtual Assistants is moving in that direction.   

www.nohold.com

The Leading Manufacturer and Provider of Visual Technology Celebrates Grand Opening

Last week, noHold's CEO was invited to attend ViewSonic's official ribbon cutting ceremony in Brea, CA. It was a very exciting day, celebrating the grand opening of their new corporate headquarters! Diego had the chance to see some familiar faces, and also meet a few new ones. Here is a quick photo taken from that afternoon. 

August 21, 2014; ViewSonic ribbon cutting ceremony

Congratulations again on the big move, ViewSonic! We wish you all the best!
www.nohold.com

REMINDER: noHold's CEO Will be on the Peggy Smedley Show in T-Minus 30 Minutes

About a month ago, Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, was published in an interview with Connected World Magazine. He had the opportunity to talk with Tim Lindner, a distinguished member of the Editorial Advisory Board at Connected World Magazine about the Internet of Everything and Artificial Intelligence, and how noHold fits in. To read the full interview, please follow this link.   

Today at 10:15 AM PT, Diego will be appearing live on the Peggy Smedley Show, the voice of M2M and connected devices. 

To listen in:  

1. Go to http://www.peggysmedleyshow.com/  

2. Click on the "Listen Live Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. CT" link in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Nearing the end of the show, there will be a Question and Answer portion for listeners to call in and ask questions or offer comments; the phone number is 866-977-2346 ext. 2. noHold will also be tweeting live throughout the show, so be sure to tweet your comments/questions to noHold by tagging @noHoldAI and using #IoEConvo.

Have questions after the show? You can let us know, by going to the contact us page on our website and filling out an 'email us' form located on the right side of the page. 

We hope you can join us! Enjoy!

http://www.nohold.com/diego-talks-ioe-peggy-smedley-show.html

Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold, with Special Guest Glenn Schleicher, Sr. Director of Customer Service at Cisco, Talk about the Internet of Everything (IoE) on The Peggy Smedley Show

August 11, 2014, Milpitas, California – In recent news, Diego Ventura, the Founder and CEO of noHold, Inc. was published in an interview with Connected World Magazine. Now, Ventura is invited back to be a guest on their live radio show, The Peggy Smedley Show.

Connected World Magazine is a trusted source for all things M2M. They provide insider knowledge about the latest innovations in connectivity, and top technology trends. Tim Lindner, a distinguished member of the editorial advisory board at Connected World Magazine, sat down with Diego to talk about the Internet of Everything phenomenon and how noHold fits into the equation. “What we learned is that what noHold does will at some point in the future touch your lives on a daily basis. It will soon be very transparent to you. All you will see, hear, and touch will be his company’s Virtual Agents.” (Lindner, 2014; Diego Ventura, CEO noHold, Talks IoE and A.I.). To read the full interview, please click here.

As a seasoned veteran on all things M2M and connected devices, The Peggy Smedley Show is a reputable source for industry professionals and technology enthusiast alike. The show features select guests to inform listeners of the different perspectives on the market today, and what they envision for the future. noHold is very excited to announce, tomorrow, August 12th at 12:15 p.m. CT, Diego Ventura will debut live on The Peggy Smedley Show. Glenn Schleicher, Sr. Director of Customer Services at Cisco will also be there sharing his thoughts on the topics at hand. They will sit down and discuss matters such as: Virtual Agents empowering humans to experience the Internet of Everything, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), cognitive computing, and everything in between.

To listen, please go to http://www.peggysmedleyshow.com/, and click on the ‘Listen Live Tuesday at 12 p.m. CT’ link in the navigation bar at the top of the page. Be sure to call in during the Q&A portion of the show to share your questions and comments; the number is 866-977-2346 ext. 2. Also, we will be tweeting live throughout the show. To join the conversation tag @noHoldAI and use #IoEConvo.

“It is nice to see the industry accepting Artificial Intelligence as a strategic differentiator. The show will give us an opportunity to discuss some of the latest developments and what the future has in store.” Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

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 interaction. noHold customers include Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.

About The Peggy Smedley Show

As the voice of M2M and connected devices, The Peggy Smedley Show is an entertaining, yet fun, resource for listeners looking to understand the issues and challenges of implementing the newest technologies both in the workplace and at home. Broadcast live each Tuesday from 12 p.m. - 1 p.m. CT on wsRadio.com, host Peggy Smedley brings her years of experience, knowledge, analysis, and sense of humor to each show. The Peggy Smedley Show features discussions with top-tech thinkers and newsmakers, offering in-depth analysis, while sharing the hottest connected-device stories and trends. To learn more, or to hear current or past shows, please visit www.peggysmedleyshow.com.

Press Contacts

Sarah Ramoz

Marketing Operations Manager

sramoz@nohold.com

408.946.9200 ext. 305

Veronica Cech                                                                                                           

Social Media Assistant                                                                            

vcech@nohold.com                                                                                             

408.946.9200 ext. 356                                                                                          

Please follow noHold's 'Press Center' for our latest press releases and news.

Exclusive Interview: Diego Ventura Talks with Connected World Magazine About IoE and AI

The CEO and founder of noHold, Diego Ventura, sat down with Tim Lindner of Connected World Magazine to talk about the Internet of Everything (IoE) and how Virtual Agents are a growing part of this phenomenon. Below is the introduction to the article; to read the full interview, please click here.   

Introduction
"At the close of 2012, Ray Kurzweil, a well-known inventor, futurist, and founder of Singularitarianism, posted a brief article in his online newsletter entitled "How the Internet of Everything Will Change the World."

His primary source was Cisco, which at the time was beginning its transformation into a company primarily focused on supplying the infrastructure that would support the explosive growth it forecasted as the world embraced the IoE (Internet of Everything).

Cisco made the statement that "more than 99% of things in the physical world are still not connected to the Internet." Cisco went on to state that "by 2020, 37 billion intelligent things will be connected to the Internet." 2020 is less than six years away.

As Cisco defines it, "The Internet of Everything builds on the foundation of the IoT (Internet of Things) by adding network intelligence that allows convergence, orchestration, and visibility across previously disparate systems."

Like the iceberg, the things we can see, such as connected-smart devices in people's hands or cars, is just a small part of the whole. The larger part unseen by most is the infrastructure that connects those devices and makes the Internet of Everything work.

It is here, unseen but an important player in the functioning of the infrastructure, "adding network intelligence that allows convergence, orchestration, and visibility across previously disparate systems," that we find Diego Ventura and his company, noHold, Inc. Recently Connected World magazine's Tim Lindner sat down with the very distinguished Ventura to have a very candid conversation about how he plans on charting a course for noHold straight into the future of the Internet of Everything. What we learned is that what noHold does will at some point in the future touch your lives on a daily basis. It will soon be very transparent to you. All you will see, hear, and touch will be his company's Virtual Agents."

To read the full interview, visit: Diego Ventura, CEO, noHold Talks IoE and AI

For more information about noHold, visit: www.nohold.com

Behind the Scenes: An Exclusive Preview of noHold's Virtual Butler

Augmenting the Internet of Everything     

     

     Lately, there has been a lot of talk in the news about the Internet of Everything (IoE). Just recently we announced the arrival of noHold Connect, the technology used to empower humans to experience the IoE from a single user interface. Diego Ventura, the CEO and founder of noHold, made a short video showing a raw, exclusive preview of the Virtual Butler for wearable devices.        

     According to a recent article published by Computerworld, “Analysts expect not only an explosion of wearable devices in the next three years, but an explosion of mobile apps of all kinds. Research firm Gartner last year predicted that wearable devices will drive half of all app interactions by 2017, a startling prediction, but one that Gartner believes was reinforced by the flurry of wearable devices shown at International CES.” One analyst mentioned that “virtually all vendors are choosing mobile apps to interact with the way we will use a wearable device.”(Computerworld.com)

     The scenario that noHold described in a Press Release about noHold Connect and the IoE, is coming to fruition. noHold connect augmenting the IoE is about focusing on bringing the human element to the future of interconnected living, while making consumers less dependent on multiple apps.     

     We are not stopping at wearable devices, though. Soon, multiple vendors from a variety of industries will connect to the Virtual Butler, encompassing all aspects of the IoE. These include companies in the telecommunications space, automobile industry, smart appliance manufacturers (i.e. coffee machines, refrigerators,etc.), and much, much more.

     As you can see from the preview above, the goal of the Virtual Butler is to simplify our lives. There are so many apps on our smartphones that control devices/services that are connected to the Internet. For example, mobile banking apps, apps that control your DVR, home security apps, etc. Having an individual app for each of these connected items can become a bit chaotic, but imagine a life with a Virtual Butler that can help you manage and get the most out of your devices, all through a single user interface (UI). It creates an enhanced interactive experience that users are demanding.      

     The best is yet to come for the Virtual Butler! For more information on the IoE and the Virtual Butler check out this slideshare presentation, Connecting the Internet of Everything to the Human Element.