Martech Zone Interviews

Martech Zone Interviews

By Douglas KarrBusinessMarketing
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Martech Zone Interviews episodes

  • SoftSync: A CRM Your Small Team Can Actually Run

    A small sales team outgrows a spreadsheet and then meets a CRM built for a much larger floor. The lead lives in one file. The inbox lives somewhere else. The meeting notes land in a doc nobody opens again. The next step is whatever someone remembers.

    That gap is not a reporting problem. It is a record problem. The person, the company, the last email, and the meeting have to sit together, or the follow-up depends on heroics.

    SoftSync

    SoftSync is a CRM for startups and small commercial teams. It keeps the lead, the mailbox, the meeting, and the next action on one record the team can reshape with its own fields, stages, and views.

    The useful version of a small-team CRM is not a dashboard. It is the place you open before a call. SoftSync puts the contact, company, email thread, and notes on that record in one place, so the next action is visible without a second system.

    Outreach stays in the mailbox the team already uses. Connect Gmail or Outlook, send a personal campaign from that inbox, and stop the sequence when the person replies. The reply stays on the customer, not in a separate sending tool.

    Meetings do not need a bot in the room. The desktop assistant for Mac and Windows records the microphone and system audio, writes a transcript and an editable summary, and attaches both to the contact, company, or deal.

    A team that has outgrown a generic pipeline can define its own record types, such as investors, candidates, or partners, and give each type its own fields and stages. The same records open as a table, a pipeline, a board, or a calendar.

    What You Can Run from the Record

    The workspace covers the day between the first saved lead and the report a founder actually reads. Each piece below is named on the product, and each one writes back to the record.

    • AI Assistant: Ask in plain language across calls, emails, and records, see the source, and then ask it to change a record.
    • API: About sixty REST endpoints cover records, groups, views, notes, messages, campaigns, workflows, and the shape of a table. A personal key sits under the workspace settings.
    • Autopilot: Describe a routine in plain words. SoftSync shows what it will check and do, runs only after you switch it on, and logs each run.
    • Booking pages: Set meeting types and host availability on a page you can share or embed. A booking creates or matches a contact and puts the event on the calendar. Form responses land in the CRM as well.
    • Chat: Ask over the CRM and get a number, a list, or a chart back. The same room can create a contact, update a deal, or start a follow-up.
    • Chrome extension: Save the contact, company, role, and source from the page you are already viewing. Enrichment can fill gaps where it is available.
    • Custom records: Add types such as investors, candidates, properties, or partners, each with its own fields, stages, and views, and link those records together.
    • Desktop Meeting Assistant: A Mac and Windows app captures microphone and system audio, writes a transcript and an editable summary, and attaches them to a contact, a company, or a deal. No bot joins the call.
    • Email campaigns: Send from the connected mailbox, personalize from the record, schedule a follow-up, and stop the sequence when someone replies.
    • Import: Upload the spreadsheet as it is. Import merges duplicate customers and shows the result before it is saved.
    • Mailpilot: Forward an email into the workspace. SoftSync creates the contact, builds the company from the domain, and files it in a group.
    • MCP: An assistant signs in as you and can read or act within the permissions you set. SoftSync names Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini for this.
    • Record enrichment: Included on every paid plan. The extension can use it to fill gaps in a contact record.
    • Reports: Cover funnel, pipeline value, win rate, revenue, owner, and source. Templates include pipeline by stage, revenue by source, revenue trend, largest customers, and work by status. A chart opens the underlying records.
    • Views: Open the same records as a calendar, a table, a pipeline, or a board.
    • Together they cover capture, outreach, the meeting, and the repeatable job, without a separate form tool, booking tool, and notes doc.

      The workflow engine is how those jobs reach other tools. SoftSync hosts the workspace on Azure.

      SoftSync’s workflow engine can connect with a broad ecosystem of 500+ platforms.

      SoftSync, Integrations

      Your data is stored and processed in the EU, on Azure in Stockholm.

      SoftSync
      From the First Saved Lead

      SoftSync describes a short path from a name in the browser to a next step on the record. You can start from the file you already have.

      1. Save a person or company from the browser extension.
      2. Send a personal campaign and plan the next touch.
      3. Share a booking page and prepare the meeting.
      4. Record the meeting on the desktop app.
      5. Review the summary and attach the next step to the record.
      6. Shape the fields, stages, groups, and views around the process.
      7. Read the motion in Reports, or hand a repeatable job to Autopilot.
      8. Import sorts the rows, merges the same customer, and lets you preview the result before it is saved. Business includes help with that migration. There is no separate setup fee, and early-stage teams can ask about a startup discount.

        Pro is $29 per seat per month when billed yearly, and $39 when billed monthly. Business, which adds a workspace consultant and custom integrations, is $59 billed yearly or $79 billed monthly. Enterprise is custom. Prices exclude VAT. Some product pages describe a 14-day trial. The pricing page says checkout shows the trial terms, including whether a card is required.

        Pro holds 250,000 records per object, and Business holds a million per object.

        SoftSync
        What Teams Say About the Move

        People who already run a heavier CRM describe the switch in plain terms. One note is about leaving HubSpot with help from Claude.

        I never imagined that transferring data from HubSpot to SoftSync could be this easy. Claude first had a conversation with me, walking me through the different options and important differences. It then handled the entire process for me.

        Finn Schløsser-Møller, Board Chair and Strategic Advisor

        Start a SoftSync Trial

        ©2026 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

        Originally Published on Martech Zone: SoftSync: A CRM Your Small Team Can Actually Run

        4 min
      9. SlidesAI: Build Decks in the Browser, Slides, or PowerPoint

        People usually write the argument for a pitch, lesson, or quarterly review before anyone opens a slide file. It sits in meeting notes, a lesson plan, or a hastily drafted document. The slow part is breaking that material into slides a room can follow. Layout and consistency take the hour that should have gone to the point.

        A second delay shows up when the same story has to exist in more than one program. One person presents from a file on a laptop. A teammate expects a shared deck online. Rebuilding both by hand turns a clear idea into a late file.

        SlidesAI

        SlidesAI is an AI presentation platform that builds an editable deck from a prompt, pasted notes, a document, or a web page. You can start in the browser, inside Google Slides, inside PowerPoint, or from a ChatGPT conversation that saves a Google Slides file.

        Keep Editing Where the Deck Will Be Given

        The useful result is not a stack of slides you cannot change. You review an outline first. The deck is then generated in the file you’ll keep editing. In the browser, you export the file when it is ready. In Google Slides or PowerPoint, new slides land in the file you already have open and follow that file’s theme.

        A class, a sales review, and a client pitch do not have to start in the same program. Notes can begin in the browser. A deck that already lives in PowerPoint can take new slides on top of its Slide Master. A conversation in ChatGPT can end as a Google Slides file.

        Spend 85% less time building slides. 3.7M+ presentations created with SlidesAI, and counting.

        SlidesAI
        What You Can Change Before You Present

        The work is built around the deck, not around a single add-on menu. These are the controls you use while a presentation is still taking shape.

        • AI image generation: Describe a picture or icon, then place the result on a slide.
        • Brand kit: Save colors, fonts, a logo, and layouts, including a look taken from a PowerPoint file you upload.
        • Charts and diagrams: Build charts from your own figures, and add diagrams, flowcharts, and timelines you can still edit.
        • Document import: Bring in a Microsoft Word document, a PDF, a Google Doc, or a page from the web. Document upload is included on the paid plans.
        • Editable outline: Read the outline and change it before any slides are built.
        • Export: Send the deck to Google Slides, download a PowerPoint file, or save a PDF.
        • Live collaboration: Co-edit, comment, and share a link from the browser app. A Google Slides deck keeps Google’s own sharing.
        • Multilingual decks: Generate a presentation in another language, or translate a deck you already have.
        • Remix and rewrite: Shorten, expand, or rephrase slides that are already in the file.
        • Speaker notes: Ask the PowerPoint add-in to draft notes under the slides.
        • Stock images: Search royalty-free photos and drop them in, or upload your own.
        • Templates: Start from a library of Google Slides and PowerPoint templates when you do not want a blank file.
        • Theme controls: Restyle an existing Google Slides or PowerPoint deck in one pass, and keep custom themes for the next one.
        • Taken together, the first draft stays editable. You are not locked to the first layout, the first wording, or the first program that opened the file.

          How to Create a Presentation

          Pick the place the deck needs to end up. Each step is short.

          1. In the browser, open SlidesAI with no install. Enter a topic or paste notes, or upload a document. Set the type of presentation, the audience, the tone, and the style. Review the outline, generate the slides, then edit them and export to Google Slides, PowerPoint, or a PDF.
          2. In Google Slides, install the SlidesAI add-on, open a deck, and generate slides into that file. The new slides follow the deck’s theme and layouts. Later edits stay in Google Slides. A personal Google account and a Google Workspace account both work.
          3. In PowerPoint on Windows or Mac, install the SlidesAI add-in and generate into the open deck, including onto your Slide Master. PowerPoint 2016 and newer are supported, as are the Microsoft 365 desktop apps. Generation can add speaker notes.
          4. In ChatGPT, open the SlidesAI presentation maker, describe the deck, and review the outline. Sign in with Google. The file is saved to Google Slides.
          5. Each path ends in a deck you can still change. The browser is where you start from scratch. Google Slides and PowerPoint are where you can generate a file that already has a look. ChatGPT is where you describe the presentation before it becomes a Google Slides file.

            Create a Presentation with SlidesAI

            ©2026 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

            Originally Published on Martech Zone: SlidesAI: Build Decks in the Browser, Slides, or PowerPoint

            0 min
          6. ShotPanel: Organize and Keep Screenshots Off Your Mac Desktop

            I work across three screens, and I take a ton of screenshots. A campaign review, a broken layout, a slide someone asked for in chat: each one lands on the Desktop, and by the afternoon I cannot tell them apart.

            Taking the shot is the easy part. Finding the one I need, then getting rid of the rest, is what I dread. The cleanup is always the same. I open the folder, sort by name, select from the first screenshot to the last, right-click, and move the whole range to the Trash.

            The system already knows how to take the picture. I wanted a place for those pictures to wait, large enough to recognize, close enough to copy into an email or ticket, and easy to clear when the work is done.

            I built ShotPanel, a free native app for macOS 14 and later. It gathers the screenshot files macOS already saves into one floating panel, so those images do not cover my Desktop.

            The Idea Behind the Panel

            Tendedero, an open-source macOS app by Alejandro Buján, was the spark. Tendedero’s clothesline was the idea I wanted: screenshots should gather in one place instead of covering the Desktop. ShotPanel is a totally separate app, but his work inspired it.

            I wrote ShotPanel entirely with Grok. I pointed Grok at Tendedero’s GitHub repository, then ran dozens of tests and optimizations with Grok myself. Grok also produced the overview video.

            The film below is the 48-second overview that ships with version 1.1.0. Grok produced it.

            A Calmer Place for the Shots I Take

            Finding the shot was the slow part, not taking it. I was tired of scrolling through a Desktop full of exports, logos, and downloads that happen to be images. The panel holds only the automatic screenshots.

            ShotPanel keeps new shots from landing on my Desktop. Files already in the screenshot folder move into the panel, and the floating thumbnail steps aside while that option is on. When I turn the option off or quit, the old save location returns.

            From the panel I can open a shot, copy it, or drag that one file into a browser, a ticket, or a folder. Clearing one image, or the whole group, asks first and then moves the files to the Trash. Nothing is deleted outright.

            The same group also appears as a ShotPanel folder in the Dock, just after Downloads, for as long as a screenshot is in the panel. I can reach the files without opening a folder and sorting by name, even when the panel itself is minimized.

            What the Panel Can Do

            I kept the controls small on purpose. Each one does a single job with the files already in the screenshot folder.

            • Arrow keys: Pointing at the panel shows arrows on the ends that still have shots. The arrow keys move the row.
            • Copy: Puts the selected image on the clipboard. The button then says Copied.
            • Delete: Asks Are you sure? on that image, then moves that one file to the Trash.
            • Delete all: Asks Are you sure? in the bar, then moves the whole group to the Trash. The same action is on the menu-bar icon.
            • Desktop capture: While ShotPanel is open and this option is on, shots already in the screenshot folder move into the panel, new ones skip the Desktop, and the floating thumbnail is turned off. Quitting, or turning the option off, restores the previous save location.
            • Dock folder: While any screenshot is in the group, a ShotPanel folder sits in the Dock just after Downloads.
            • Drag out: A drag that starts on a photo moves that one file into another app, a browser, or a folder.
            • Full-screen hide: The panel hides while a Space is in full screen.
            • Horizontal or vertical: Right-click to stack shots upright or sideways. Vertical swaps the panel’s width and height. Each orientation remembers its own size. The info bar stays at the bottom.
            • Info bar: Shows the selected shot’s name, date and time, pixel size, and file size.
            • Menu bar: Hide or show the panel, turn Desktop capture on or off, open at login, delete the group, or quit.
            • Minimize: The minus button, or Command-M, sends the panel to the Dock.
            • Move: Drag the bottom bar to move the panel.
            • Newest first: The newest shot sits at the start of the list, large enough to read.
            • Open: Double-click, or right-click and choose Open, to open the file.
            • Open at login: ShotPanel asks before the panel opens. The answer can be changed later from the ShotPanel menu.
            • Quit: From the menu bar item, with Command-Q, or by right-clicking the panel.
            • Resize: Drag an edge or a corner. The panel keeps that size, and the shots scale to it. One shot scales down so the whole image stays inside. When several fit, they sit side by side with space between them, and the next shows as a faded sliver at the edge.
            • Screenshot folder permission: The app asks to read the screenshot folder and stays closed until that is allowed.
            • Select: Click a shot. Copy and Delete appear on that image.
            • Slide: A finger on the top of the mouse, or a press-and-slide on the trackpad, moves through the list. Shots enter and leave at the edges.
            • Taken together, the panel is the holding shelf I wanted. I open a shot, copy it, drag it into the app that needs it, or send the group to the Trash, without sorting a folder by name and selecting from the first shot to the last.

              Install It and Take a Screenshot

              Download the disk image, open it, and drag ShotPanel to Applications. The first launch may say macOS cannot verify the developer. Allow from System Settings:

              • Click Open Anyway and enter your Mac’s administrator password to confirm.
              • Try to open the app normally. It will be blocked with a warning message.
              • Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
              • Click on Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
              • Scroll down to the Security section. You will see a message that the app was blocked.
              • Click Allow.
              • Right-click ShotPanel, choose Open, then Open again. The app asks to read the screenshot folder and whether to start at login. During screen sharing, that question can appear on the computer itself.

                I still take a screenshot the way I always have. With Desktop capture on, the new file shows up in the panel instead of on the Desktop. I double-click it to open it, or select it and copy it.

                The source is Swift on macOS 14 or later. A build script in the repository produces the app. A local build is signed just enough to run, and macOS may ask the same questions before the app can read the Desktop.

                Download ShotPanel

                ©2026 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                Originally Published on Martech Zone: ShotPanel: Organize and Keep Screenshots Off Your Mac Desktop

                1 min
              • Top SaaS Video Production Companies in 2025

                In the fast-growing world of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), competition for attention is fierce. Companies are constantly looking for ways to clearly explain their complex products, highlight value propositions, and build trust with users. Video marketing has become one of the most effective tools for SaaS brands to educate, convert, and retain customers. High-quality product demos, explainer videos, onboarding tutorials, and brand storytelling all play a crucial role in communicating SaaS value effectively.

                Below is a curated list of the top seven SaaS video production companies in 2025 known for their creativity, storytelling expertise, and ability to produce videos that convert.

                Table of Contents
                1. Blue Carrot
                2. Epipheo
                3. Demo Duck
                4. Yum Yum Videos
                5. Wyzowl
                6. Explainify
                7. Sandwich Video
                8. Conclusion
                Blue Carrot

                Blue Carrot is an award-winning creative studio specializing in visual storytelling for SaaS and technology brands. The company stands out for its ability to turn complex digital solutions into simple, engaging, and emotionally resonant video content. From SaaS explainers and customer onboarding videos to motion-graphic product demos, Blue Carrot’s team combines animation, design, and marketing strategy to produce videos that not only attract attention but also drive conversions. Their deep understanding of the SaaS market allows them to craft content that communicates both product functionality and brand personality. 

                As a trusted saas video production agency, Blue Carrot helps companies scale awareness, improve engagement, and increase signups through powerful storytelling. Their portfolio spans startups and enterprise clients across industries like fintech, healthcare tech, and business automation. Every project by Blue Carrot reflects precision, creativity, and a data-driven approach designed to boost product adoption and brand loyalty.

                Epipheo

                Epipheo is one of the pioneers in using storytelling to help SaaS companies explain complex ideas with clarity and authenticity. Their videos focus on sparking “epiphanies”—moments when viewers truly understand what a product does and why it matters. Epipheo creates animated explainers, testimonial videos, and thought leadership pieces that help SaaS brands humanize their technology. By blending emotional storytelling with clear messaging, the company ensures every video educates while building a connection between the viewer and the brand.

                Demo Duck

                Demo Duck is a top-tier video production company specializing in SaaS and technology content. They create explainer videos, onboarding videos, and customer success stories that showcase software functionality and brand identity. Demo Duck’s approach is rooted in creative simplicity—helping SaaS brands translate complex digital products into clear, memorable visuals. Their in-house team of animators, writers, and strategists work together to deliver videos that convert audiences into paying users. Demo Duck’s portfolio includes work for well-known software companies and tech startups across industries like analytics, CRM, and enterprise solutions.

                Yum Yum Videos

                Yum Yum Videos is a global animation studio recognized for producing high-quality animated explainers and marketing videos for SaaS companies. Their work emphasizes clean design, emotional storytelling, and clarity of message. Yum Yum Videos collaborates with clients to craft custom video strategies that align with their brand tone, marketing objectives, and target audience. From 2D animations to product tutorials, the company delivers videos that drive awareness, engagement, and conversion. With an experienced creative team and an efficient production process, Yum Yum Videos continues to be a reliable partner for SaaS brands worldwide.

                Wyzowl

                Wyzowl is one of the most experienced video production companies in the SaaS space, having created thousands of videos for businesses around the world. The company offers a full range of services including animated explainers, app walkthroughs, and onboarding videos tailored for software products. Wyzowl’s strength lies in its ability to produce clear, concise, and visually appealing content that simplifies complex ideas. Their videos are widely used by SaaS marketers for product launches, website introductions, and paid ad campaigns. Known for their transparent process and fixed pricing, Wyzowl has become a trusted name among SaaS startups and enterprises alike.

                Explainify

                Explainify helps SaaS companies communicate their value proposition through concise and visually engaging videos. The company’s philosophy revolves around “clarity above all,” making it ideal for technology-driven organizations that need to simplify complex solutions. Explainify produces animated explainers, live-action videos, and promotional content that focuses on both storytelling and conversion. Their clients include global SaaS brands in cybersecurity, cloud computing, and business analytics. Each project is designed to align marketing objectives with audience needs, ensuring that every second of video serves a strategic purpose.

                Sandwich Video

                Sandwich Video is a creative production company known for its cinematic and brand-focused approach to SaaS marketing videos. The company gained fame for its quirky, high-quality product videos that combine humor, storytelling, and sleek visuals. Sandwich specializes in live-action videos for startups and established software brands looking to make a bold statement. Their unique style is both professional and approachable, helping SaaS companies stand out in a crowded digital space. By focusing on authenticity and relatable storytelling, Sandwich Video creates content that builds excitement and emotional connection around software products.

                Conclusion

                As the SaaS industry continues to expand, video has become the most powerful medium for communicating product value, driving user adoption, and strengthening brand identity. The companies listed above represent the best in the field, offering a range of creative approaches—from Blue Carrot’s animation-driven storytelling to Sandwich Video’s live-action cinematic style. Each of these studios understands the nuances of the SaaS landscape and how to translate complex technology into content that resonates with users. Partnering with one of these top SaaS video production companies will help your brand increase visibility, boost engagement, and build lasting trust in an increasingly competitive market.

                ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                Originally Published on Martech Zone: Top SaaS Video Production Companies in 2025

                0 min
              • EazeeSign: Boost Document E-signature Security and Speed in a Remote-First World

                Remote teams continue to struggle with delays caused by outdated, paper-based signature workflows. Printing, scanning, and mailing add unnecessary friction, especially when teams operate across time zones. When organizations move at a digital pace, slow approvals can derail momentum and create serious operational risk. Teams need a faster, safer way to move documents through the workflow without sacrificing security or accountability.

                EazeeSign

                EazeeSign, a product created by Servercenter, the technology company founded by Harpreet Randhawa, was designed to meet this challenge. It offers a streamlined, highly secure approach to digital signing, enabling remote teams to approve documents quickly from anywhere.

                At its core, EazeeSign reduces waiting time by allowing documents to be signed in minutes rather than days. Users upload a file, assign signature fields, and send a link. Signers click, sign, and complete the document without printing or scanning. This simplicity directly benefits distributed teams that need to keep work moving efficiently.

                Security is a central pillar of the platform. EazeeSign employs advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and compliance with global standards to protect sensitive content. An always-on audit trail logs each action, reinforcing trust and transparency. For businesses that operate across departments, clients, or international borders, this level of protection ensures signatures remain valid and documents remain intact.

                The platform also brings structure and clarity to teams of any size. Smaller businesses can manage their contracts and invoices with ease. Larger teams can streamline onboarding, client agreements, and departmental approvals. Freelancers can finalize deals quickly without administrative overhead. The system’s flexibility makes it well-suited for a broad range of workflows.

                To help teams stay organized, EazeeSign includes a clean dashboard with real-time status updates—pending, waiting, or signed—ensuring everyone stays aligned. Integrations with storage tools further reduce friction, enabling users to upload and archive documents seamlessly. Pricing tiers range from a free introductory plan for light usage to business-grade packages with advanced security and automation.

                EazeeSign Features

                Before the list begins, it’s essential to understand that these features work together to make signing faster, safer, and more intuitive for remote teams.

                • Audit trail: Tracks all actions from upload to final signature, providing complete accountability and visibility into compliance.
                • Bulk sending: Sends one document to many recipients or multiple documents to large groups, accelerating high-volume workflows.
                • Collaborate with team: Enables real-time comments, shared templates, and coordinated document management inside one workspace.
                • Create documents: Let users upload or build documents from templates, and place signature or form fields using a drag-and-drop interface.
                • Document editor: Provides inline editing tools to adjust text, insert interactive fields, and brand documents without switching platforms.
                • Embed videos: Allows multimedia content within documents, offering instructions or context for signers.
                • Expiry: Sets expiration dates for signing links to ensure time-sensitive security and prevent unauthorized completion.
                • Integration: Connects with popular storage and workflow tools so teams can manage documents without extra steps.
                • Mobile and tablet apps: Supports signing and sending from any device, keeping work moving regardless of location.
                • Security and compliance: Uses encryption, two-factor authentication (2FA), and adherence to major global standards to safeguard every document.
                • Together, these features create a secure, end-to-end esignature experience that eliminates bottlenecks while maintaining total oversight.

                  Get Started With EazeeSign

                  Getting started is simple. Users create an account, upload a document, add signing fields, and invite participants. The status dashboard displays progress in real time, and notifications alert teams when signatures are completed. Integrations automatically store documents, keeping everything organized with minimal manual handling. A free trial makes it easy to test the workflow before selecting a plan.

                  As remote and hybrid work environments continue to expand, the demand for fast, reliable, and compliant digital signing grows. EazeeSign brings clarity, speed, and high-grade security to a business function that can no longer rely on manual methods. For teams seeking a modern, dependable way to finalize agreements, it offers a compelling, streamlined solution.

                  Start your free trial of EazeeSign

                  ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                  Originally Published on Martech Zone: EazeeSign: Boost Document E-signature Security and Speed in a Remote-First World

                  0 min
                • Abby Connect: How AI Voice is Disrupting New Business Calls

                  Time spent on converting new clients is one of the biggest pain points for any business. We’ve all experienced it: you research the opportunity, calculate a budget, put together a proposal – only to discover weeks later, it was a waste of time.

                  Wouldn’t it be great to know before you even started the conversation whether a potential client would be profitable, or a money loser?

                  AI voice is now helping SME companies identify which potential clients are worth pursuing and which should be ignored. The legal industry and service sector businesses are already adopting this technology – and with great results.

                  Las Vegas-based Abby Connect launched the AI Voice platform roughly 6 months ago.

                  How Does Abby Connect Work?

                  Most companies train salespeople how to vet potential clients, using pre-arranged questions. Based on the potential client’s answers, you can usually tell if they will be a good fit for your company. Abby Connect’s AI voice takes the same approach, using prepared prompts that converse with potential clients, asking many of the same questions.

                  The only difference: AI is much faster and smarter than humans. As a result, companies can know within minutes whether the potential client is a potential money maker or money loser.

                  Abby Connect programs the AI agent to ask specific questions – similar to how a staff employee is trained. The AI instantly analyzes conversations, screens for case value, and prioritizes leads worth pursuing.

                  There is a process to developing and cultivating new business with humans. AI voice takes that same process and automates it, helping you identify better prospects without wasting human hours.

                  Natham Strum, CEO of Abby Connect
                  AI Voice Case Study

                  Vanderveen Elder and Special Needs Law adopted the AI voice for client calls coming in after the firm was closed. Angela Williams, Executive Assistant, said her firm was struggling to keep up with a large number of calls and voicemails coming in after hours, lowering their productivity.

                  Having an AI-powered solution that ensures calls are answered promptly—without the typical ‘we’ll call you back the next business day’ response—has been a huge relief. It feels personalized, it adapts well, and it eliminates the frustration of endless voicemail loops. If I had to sum it up in one phrase, I’d say it’s a ‘life preserver and safety net’ for ensuring smooth client interactions.

                  Angela Williams, Executive Assistant

                  Read the Full Case Study

                  Abby Connect recently conducted a data analysis of client conversations, involving 500,000 service sector calls, including thousands from law firms, solo practices and larger multi-office firms. The goal was to study and learn from the data: How do AI agents compare to humans?

                  Human vs. AI Voice Agent Study

                  This was the first study of its kind comparing AI agents to humans when speaking with clients and customers. Some of the unexpected key findings from these customer interactions with AI agents:

                  AI agents use more words, but their calls are 44 percent shorter than human calls.

                  It might seem counterintuitive that a conversation with more words takes less time, but this is what the analysis found. One of the reasons behind this finding is that humans frequently communicate in a roundabout way to communicate their thoughts. In contrast, the AI agent is more direct. In addition, AI agents might use more words to communicate their message to ensure the customer is following the conversation. Another unique finding: AI speaks 2.5X faster than humans, yet customers don’t seem to notice.

                  Customers get confused at similar rates, whether they’re speaking with an AI agent or a person.

                  The analysis identified the term ‘confusion’ when a customer asked to speak to a different customer service agent or supervisor. There was no distinguishable difference between the human and AI agent when it came to customers asking to speak to a person of higher authority. The data did show that AI agents handled urgent requests as well as humans based on the customer’s handoff requests.

                  Humans still outperform AI in complex scenarios and nuanced emotional tone.

                  When it comes to expressing empathy or understanding nuanced emotional tones, humans still have the edge over AI. Abby Connect found AI falls short in nuanced conversations that involve emotions. This can be critical for sensitive industries like family law, criminal defense or personal injury.

                  This unique finding involving AI’s shortcomings with emotional tones and their ability to understand it, reinforces the need to include humans with all AI customer service. The human touch is needed to complement customer conversations with AI agents. This is why we believe that AI will not replace humans in the customer service industry, contrary to what many people are predicting. AI works best when working side-by-side with humans overseeing the interaction.

                  Natham Strum, CEO of Abby Connect
                  About Abby Connect

                  Unlike large, out-of-the-country call centers, Abby Connect assigns a small, dedicated team of virtual receptionists to each client, ensuring the team becomes intimately familiar with your business and provides a personalized experience for callers. This personalized service is enhanced by Abby Intelligence, which combines AI technology with human intelligence to proactively optimize accounts, reduce errors, and improve efficiency, resulting in consistently high-quality caller experiences.

                  Get Started with Abby Connect

                  ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                  Originally Published on Martech Zone: Abby Connect: How AI Voice is Disrupting New Business Calls

                  0 min
                • Hume: Ushering in the Era of Emotionally Intelligent Voice AI for Text-to-Speech

                  In a world saturated with synthetic voices and emotionless assistants, Hume AI stands out as a genuine leap forward. Far from being just another text-to-speech (TTS) system, their Octave platform is a new breed: the first speech-language model built on a large language model (LLM), capable of understanding not just the words we write, but the emotions and intentions behind them. By combining linguistic context, acoustic nuance, and emotional inference, Hume AI has unlocked a new frontier for synthetic speech—what they call empathic voice intelligence.

                  Traditional TTS systems have always operated with a kind of blind obedience. You give them words, they speak them—mechanically, accurately, but often lifelessly. Octave changes that by being more than a reader; it’s an interpreter. It understands the why behind your words. This is what Hume AI terms an Empathic Voice Interface (EVI): a system that doesn’t just speak but feels.

                  EVI is Hume’s signature framework for integrating emotional understanding into voice-based AI. It combines expression measurement models, text-to-speech synthesis, and multimodal LLMs that are trained to analyze and mirror human emotional states. In practice, this means Octave can detect emotional tone, adapt delivery accordingly, and even respond empathetically.

                  As demonstrated by Eevee, Hume’s emotionally intelligent voice assistant, this capability allows users to engage in conversations where the AI listens not just to what you say, but how you say it. Whether you’re whispering in grief or shouting in triumph, Octave knows—and adjusts its output with striking realism.

                  What Makes Octave Unique?

                  At its core, Octave is the first LLM purpose-built for voice. This means it doesn’t just map text to audio; it interprets narrative arcs, character cues, and tonal shifts in real time. A sarcastic line will sound sarcastic. A shouted warning will carry urgency. A whisper of empathy will arrive as a gentle hush.

                  In a blind study with 180 human raters comparing Octave to ElevenLabs’ TTS system, Octave consistently came out on top:

                  • Audio quality: Preferred in 71.6% of comparisons
                  • Naturalness: Preferred in 51.7% of comparisons
                  • Prompt/description accuracy: Preferred in 57.7% of comparisons
                  • These results show that Octave doesn’t just sound good—it aligns with human intent more accurately than any other system currently on the market.

                    Acting Instructions and Voice Design

                    One of Hume AI’s standout capabilities is its steerability. It can be directed much like a professional actor using Acting Instructions. Want a line read in a disgusted whisper? Just prompt it. Need the same sentence said angrily, sarcastically, or lovingly? Octave can switch styles effortlessly, using just a brief description.

                    Here’s an introduction I created in minutes to this article, produced with Hume AI:

                    And here’s the user interface of Hume utilized to create it:

                    Voice Design, another key feature, allows creators to generate entire characters using natural language descriptions. Whether it’s a stern medieval knight with a booming baritone or a soft-spoken therapist, Octave reads the description and produces a matching voice. No hand-tuning, no manual waveform tweaking—just LLM-powered comprehension.

                    Contextual Performance at Scale

                    Unlike earlier models constrained to short phrases, Octave shines with long-form content. It adapts to character arcs in audiobooks, maintains tone throughout podcast episodes, and mimics dialogue shifts in scripts. These skills are especially crucial for industries relying on vocal nuance, such as:

                    • Entertainment and media: Podcasts, voiceovers, audiobooks
                    • Healthcare and mental wellness: Virtual therapy and coaching
                    • Education and training: Narrated e-learning modules
                    • Marketing and customer experience: Branded voice interactions
                    • Octave also supports real-time voice creation through its Playground and robust developer tools. With Python and TypeScript SDKs, a command-line interface, and detailed documentation, it empowers engineers to integrate emotionally responsive voice into their apps quickly and reliably.

                      Evaluating Expressivity in Voice AI

                      As part of its launch, Hume introduced the Expressive TTS Arena, a public benchmarking platform that pushes beyond legacy standards. While traditional TTS evaluations focus on clarity and pronunciation, the Expressive TTS Arena challenges models to handle complex, nuanced prompts—like sarcasm, character-specific dialogue, and layered emotions.

                      This initiative reflects a growing recognition in the AI field: the next phase of synthetic voice isn’t just about intelligibility. It’s about humanity.

                      Future Capabilities and Ethical Voice Cloning

                      Octave’s roadmap includes the rollout of voice cloning, enabling users to generate a replica voice with as little as five seconds of source audio. This powerful feature is under careful development, with a focus on ethical deployment and user safety.

                      Meanwhile, Hume AI already offers:

                      • A voice library of 60+ prebuilt characters
                      • High-fidelity 48kHz audio output
                      • Fine control over speed, pauses, and pronunciation
                      • Long-form content generation through the Creator Studio
                      • These features make Octave not only a technical milestone, but a practical tool for today’s creators, brands, and developers.

                        Why Octave Matters

                        We are witnessing the evolution of voice AI from a functional interface to an emotionally aware medium. In a world increasingly driven by synthetic content and virtual interaction, how something is said matters as much as what is said. Octave brings tone, intent, and feeling back into digital speech.

                        By aligning emotional intelligence with generative language capabilities, Hume’s Octave doesn’t just generate sound—it communicates. This has profound implications for everything from digital storytelling to therapeutic AI. It moves us closer to an era where artificial voices don’t just sound human—they connect with us like humans do.

                        Octave redefines what’s possible in text-to-speech, setting a new standard for emotional realism, context awareness, and creative flexibility. As the first Empathic Voice Interface, it opens the door to richer, more meaningful human-AI interactions—where machines finally begin to speak with emotion.

                        Test Hume AI’s Voice Design Platform Now!

                        ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                        Originally Published on Martech Zone: Hume: Ushering in the Era of Emotionally Intelligent Voice AI for Text-to-Speech

                        2 min
                      • Adobe Marketo Engage: Power Your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy with Precision

                        For B2B marketers, reaching the right decision-makers can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Traditional lead generation tactics often produce high volumes of low-quality leads that rarely convert, while valuable opportunities slip through the cracks. Account-based marketing (ABM) flips this model on its head by focusing your resources on a carefully selected group of high-value accounts. Instead of waiting for prospects to come to you, ABM proactively targets the companies that matter most — delivering tailored, coordinated experiences that speak directly to their needs and accelerate the path to revenue.

                        What is Account-Based Marketing (ABM)?

                        ABM is a strategic approach that involves marketing and sales teams collaborating to identify, engage, and convert key accounts through personalized campaigns across multiple channels. It’s built on the principle that not all leads are equal — especially in enterprise sales where multiple stakeholders influence purchasing decisions.

                        ABM emphasizes quality over quantity, aligning your teams around a shared view of the customer journey and ensuring every message is relevant to the account’s business context. This focus makes ABM a powerful growth engine for B2B organizations seeking to build stronger relationships, enhance conversion rates, and boost customer lifetime value.

                        Source: Your Guide To Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

                        By targeting your best-fit accounts with personalized, coordinated campaigns, ABM transforms the traditional marketing funnel into a focused engine of growth. Adobe Marketo Engage is uniquely designed to execute, manage, and scale this strategy across channels and teams.

                        Adobe Marketo Engage

                        Marketo Engage is Adobe’s robust marketing automation platform, engineered to support the full lifecycle of your ABM initiatives. It gives marketing and sales teams a shared workspace to identify key accounts, personalize engagement, and measure impact — all from a single, secure platform.

                        Using Marketo Engage for ABM comes with powerful advantages. It allows you to align your teams with a unified view of account-level engagement, personalize content with precision, and orchestrate seamless multichannel campaigns. The platform’s AI-driven capabilities ensure your efforts scale without losing the personal touch, while deep CRM integrations keep your pipeline clean, current, and actionable.

                        Key Features of Marketo Engage for Account-Based Marketing

                        • AI-Powered Personalization: Deliver dynamic content tailored to each account and buyer persona using artificial intelligence. Whether it’s emails, landing pages, or chat responses, every interaction feels custom-built.
                        • Campaign Operations: Build and automate complex ABM workflows with drag-and-drop simplicity. Coordinate multi-step journeys across email, events, ads, and web for a cohesive experience.
                        • CRM Integration: Seamlessly connect with Salesforce and other CRMs to sync leads, update account details, and ensure sales and marketing teams have access to shared, real-time data.
                        • Marketing Analytics: Measure account engagement, pipeline influence, and campaign ROI with powerful, multi-touch attribution tools like Marketo Measure.
                        • Omnichannel Engagement: Activate your campaigns across email, web, ads, events, and direct mail. Ensure every channel works in harmony to engage accounts where they are.
                        • Profiles & Audiences: Automatically build and enrich detailed account profiles using firmographic, demographic, and behavioral data — helping you segment and target with precision.
                        • Sales Intelligence & Engagement: Enable sales with real-time insights into account behavior, recommended actions, and dynamic scoring that signals buying intent.
                        • Security & Compliance: Built from the ground up to support compliance frameworks like GDPR, Marketo Engage ensures your data is safe and access is role-based across teams.
                        • Each of these capabilities empowers your team to identify top-tier accounts, engage them with tailored messaging, and accelerate the path to revenue. Rather than casting a wide net, your campaigns become laser-focused — ensuring no opportunity is missed.

                          How to Get Started with ABM in Marketo Engage

                          Getting started is simple. Begin by importing or identifying your target account list within Marketo Engage, then build customer journeys with triggers based on behavior and profile data. Use the platform’s AI tools to generate personalized content, and set up automated alerts to notify sales when accounts show signs of readiness. Monitor progress with real-time dashboards and optimize your outreach with data-backed insights.


                          Source: Your Guide To Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

                          Marketo Engage doesn’t just make ABM possible — it makes it scalable, measurable, and remarkably effective. If you’re ready to stop chasing unqualified leads and start engaging your most valuable prospects, Marketo Engage is the platform to help you make it happen.

                          Take a product tour today and discover how Marketo Engage can supercharge your ABM strategy.

                          Explore Adobe Marketo Engage

                          ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                          Originally Published on Martech Zone: Adobe Marketo Engage: Power Your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Strategy with Precision

                          4 min
                        • Talkia: Create High-Converting Voiceovers Without Hiring a Voice Actor

                          Producing high-quality video content is already a big investment. But without a compelling voiceover, even the most beautifully edited video can fall flat. A powerful voiceover doesn’t just explain your message—it adds personality, boosts viewer engagement, and drives action. Unfortunately, hiring voice talent is time-consuming, expensive, and often frustrating to manage.

                          Talkia

                          Talkia is advanced text-to-speech software that uses the same cutting-edge voice synthesis AI technology found in Amazon Polly and Google Text-To-Speech. It allows users to generate realistic, human-sounding voiceovers in multiple languages—instantly. Compatible with both Mac and PC, Talkia is part of the Voomly Cloud ecosystem, giving creators powerful tools for video marketing in one place.

                          Here’s a sample of Talkia utilizing this article:

                          With Talkia, users can create professional-grade voiceovers without the hassle of hiring freelancers or renting studio time. Whether you’re creating VSLs, training content, ads, or audio books, Talkia makes your production process smoother, faster, and dramatically more affordable.

                          Talkia empowers marketers, educators, authors, and entrepreneurs by turning written text into natural-sounding speech. This increases engagement, helps explain complex topics, and builds emotional connection—all while giving you total creative control. You can test different voices, adjust tones, change languages, or add music—all from an intuitive desktop interface.

                          Here are the standout features of Talkia that set it apart:

                          • Accents: Select from a diverse range of English accents (American, British, Australian) to align with your brand’s tone or target market.
                          • Artificial Intelligence: Uses advanced WaveNet speech synthesis to mimic human intonation, emphasis, and breath pauses.
                          • Background Music: Select from dozens of music tracks to create the perfect audio atmosphere beneath your narration.
                          • Delivery Type: Choose between conversational and newscaster-style delivery for various voice profiles.
                          • Emphasis: Emphasize specific words for dramatic effect or to highlight CTAs.
                          • Language Support: Create voiceovers in multiple languages, including Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, and more, to localize your content.
                          • Pauses: Insert and control pause length for natural-sounding timing in your scripts.
                          • Pitch Personalization: Modify voice pitch to better align with the personality or emotion you want to convey.
                          • Speaking Rate: Speed up or slow down speech up to 4X to suit your content’s purpose.
                          • Unlimited Voiceovers: Unlike freelancers, Talkia lets you create as many voiceovers as you want without recurring fees.
                          • Voice Library: Includes a diverse set of male, female, and even kid voices with regional and tonal variations.
                          • Volume Control: Adjust the voiceover or background music volume to create the perfect mix.
                          • Works With All Video Software: Export voiceovers as MP3s to use in any video editing tool (Camtasia, Adobe Premiere, etc.).
                          • Whether you’re narrating a training module, building a YouTube ad, or translating content for an international audience, Talkia helps you do it professionally and at scale. Once you’ve finalized your script, the production process is simple: paste your text, pick a voice, preview, customize, and export.

                            Talkia is now included in Voomly Cloud, giving you access to an all-in-one video marketing suite. This includes tools like Toonly for cartoon videos, Doodly for whiteboard animations, People Builder, Pyks, and more—all designed to engage your audience and boost conversions.

                            Get Started with Talkia
                            1. Download and install the software on your Mac or PC.
                            2. Paste your script into the editor.
                            3. Select your preferred voice and adjust the settings.
                            4. Add optional background music.
                            5. Export the MP3 and drop it into your video editor.
                            6. Whether you’re a solo creator or part of a marketing team, Talkia saves you time and money, helping you create more engaging content that sells. Plus, every license includes free updates and a 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.

                              Create Voiceovers That Convert — Try Talkia Today

                              ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                              Originally Published on Martech Zone: Talkia: Create High-Converting Voiceovers Without Hiring a Voice Actor

                              5 min
                            7. Speechify: Turn Any Text Into a Voice That Speaks to Your Audience

                              We live in a world oversaturated with content, standing out doesn’t always mean saying more—it means saying it better. Whether you’re a content creator, educator, business communicator, or accessibility advocate, converting text into dynamic, human-like speech can amplify your impact across various platforms and audiences.

                              Listen to this article:
                              This audio was generated using Speechify in the voice of its founder, Cliff Weitzman.
                              Speechify

                              Speechify is a powerful, AI-driven text-to-speech platform that turns written content into emotionally rich, lifelike audio. With over 1,000 AI-generated voices in more than 60 languages, Speechify offers enterprise-grade tools for creators and companies to engage audiences through realistic voiceovers, dubbing, and custom voice cloning. From audiobooks and YouTube videos to customer service and IVR, Speechify transforms the way you deliver voice content—fast, affordably, and at scale.

                              By using Speechify, users eliminate the cost and complexity of hiring voice actors, navigating production schedules, or managing localization hurdles. Instead, they gain the ability to instantly produce professional-grade voiceovers, tailored to tone, emotion, and language, with unmatched flexibility. It’s an especially attractive solution for scaling teams and global brands aiming to enhance accessibility, boost engagement, and reduce operational costs.

                              Speechify Features

                              Here’s what sets Speechify apart:

                              • AI Voice Cloning: Create a lifelike digital version of any voice—including your own—with just a 20-second recording.
                              • AI Voice Over: Choose from over 1,000 hyper-realistic voices across languages, dialects, and emotional tones to suit your brand or story.
                              • AI Voice Studio: Produce entire podcasts, training videos, ads, and audiobooks directly within Speechify’s editing suite, complete with avatars and visual tools.
                              • Adjustable Pronunciation: Fine-tune how words are spoken with a built-in pronunciation library that’s perfect for technical or branded language.
                              • Apps on All Devices: Whether you’re on iOS, Android, Mac, or Chrome, Speechify goes wherever you work and create.
                              • Chrome & Edge Extensions: Read aloud any online content, including Google Docs and PDFs, right from your browser.
                              • Dubbing: Instantly localize audio in over 60 languages using AI-generated voices that sound natural and culturally appropriate.
                              • Emotional AI Voices: Select from 13 emotional tones to match the mood and intent of your content.
                              • Granular Voice Customization: Adjust speed, tone, pitch, and pauses to perfect your narration or dialogue.
                              • Inclusive Voice Library: Select voices from diverse genders, ages, and cultural backgrounds to ensure your content resonates with everyone.
                              • Security and Privacy: SOC 2 Type II compliance, end-to-end encryption, and ethical AI practices ensure responsible voice generation.
                              • TTS API for Developers: Easily integrate Speechify’s powerful voice generation capabilities into your apps or workflows with enterprise-grade API access.
                              • Team Collaboration: Enterprise users benefit from Single Sign-On (SSO), shared access, and project-level collaboration tools.
                              • YouTube Integration & Stock Media: Enhance videos with professional voiceovers using a vast library of sounds, images, and clips.
                              • From YouTube creators and podcasters to Fortune 500 earnings calls, Speechify is redefining how voice content is created and consumed. In fact, Endeavor made headlines when it used Speechify to deliver its 2023 earnings call—a move that underscored the platform’s production-grade quality and cost-saving potential.

                                Getting started is as easy as selecting a voice, typing or uploading your script, customizing tone and pace, and clicking Play. For those looking to scale, Speechify Studio offers complete editing tools, voice cloning, and dubbing right out of the box.

                                Ready to transform your content into something unforgettable? Try Speechify now and see how AI voiceovers can elevate your brand.

                                Try Speechify for Free Right Now!

                                ©2025 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved | Disclosure

                                Originally Published on Martech Zone: Speechify: Turn Any Text Into a Voice That Speaks to Your Audience

                                4 min

                              About Martech Zone Interviews

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                              Douglas Karr Interviews Business, Marketing, and Sales Leaders