For today’s Beyond Voice, I am super excited to have the Chief Content Officer of Matcbox.io, Sarah Andrew Wilson and you are going to discover HOW Sarah helped Matchbox.io reach 12 million users. In 2020, Sarah was named Alexa Campion by Amazon, a Top 12 Leader in Voice AI by Voicebot.ai, and a Top 40 Voice AI Influencer by SoundHound. Sarah oversees content strategy, UX design, and communications for Matchbox.io and has played a fundamental role in helping Matchbox.io become the award-winning brand behind some of the most popular Voice Applications on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung Bixby. With over 12 million users across some of the most popular voice apps today, including Question of the Day, Find My Phone, Kids Quiz, and Guess My Name, Sarah is someone to listen to when it comes to discovering how to grow an audience on voice. Sarah helps make your everyday easier and a little more fun via voice experiences but she also knows how to grow a community via content.

As the world acclimates to the changing landscape resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer behavior is shifting with it. Emerging technologies are adopting at faster rates and voice technology is no different.Current estimates show usage of voice assistants and smart speakers - like those powered by Amazon Alexa - has grown more than 46% in the last 60 days. Consumers are experiencing, and taking to, voice because it's accessible, fast, and easy.Every industry is trying to understand how to best leverage voice as a channel for engagement with customers and the energy industry is no different.For this episode of Beyond Voice we are joined by Laura Frantz from ICF. Laura Frantz leads the efforts of bringing voice technology to utility customers at ICF and in this episode, Laura she gives us insight into how leaders at utility companies are and should be thinking about voice technology today.

The landscape, she has changed! For businesses - large and small alike - the realities of doing business have fundamentally shifted. The mind of the consumer has take a drastic turn and how business respond will be vital to their survival.

Communication - with partners, vendors, and customers - is incredibly important at all times but none more than during times of crisis. Voice technology offers a scalable, and when deployed efficiently, personal way to keep the channels of communication open today.

Join me as Amy Summers, founder and CEO of Pitch Publicity, sheds some insight for companies on why voice technology can play a pivotal roll in how we communicate with our customers.

When it comes to marketing, branding, and market research, the field is wide open for companies to innovate and surpass consumer expectations. Voice is so accessible today that CMOs, CROs, and researchers may struggle with just how ready the modality is for participation or even where to start.

For this week's Beyond Voice, we invited Sima Vasa - entrepreneur, executive leader, and Chairman of the Board of SampleCon, one of the nations most innovative conferences for market research and sampling - to share with us her thoughts on how market researchers should be thinking about voice today and where the opportunities are for researchers.

Voice Technology is being adopted across nearly every market - Hospitality, Market Research, Healthcare, Human Resources, and more. While some markets are moving faster than others, we're seeing trends in how adopters are thinking about voice in their businesses and their markets. Many common questions pop-up. The most interesting questions we face are around regulations and legal considerations of voice-based engagements and the data we can gather through them.

For this week, we wanted to get a bit of insight into the legal considerations of the new consumer engagement channel of voice. Join us as Bianca Philips, lawyer, lecturer and consultant in Digital Health Law, Voice Technologies, and Medical Law, gives us a little guidance on the kinds of things we should be thinking about.

Retail is all about customer experience and understanding and empowering customers. The opportunity for voice in retail cannot be overstated. From in-store engagements that enrich the shopping experience to empowering customers to provide feedback closer to the point of experience, voice has the potential to breath new live into brick-and-mortar as well as creating whole new shopping experiences.


This week we are joined by John Andrews, the retail legend. Before Photofy, John was innovating in CPG and retail for over 25 years. 


Today John shares his insight and perspective on how retail should be thinking about voice technology and how he feels the retail experience will evolve for the better through voice technology.

When looking at a technology like voice, every enterprise will ask today A) why do I need it and B) what will this do for my customers. This has been true for every new consumer and industrial technology for the past 50 years.

George Ross is 92 years young, a mega-successful businessman and he has seen it all. We got a chance to sit down with George for a quick Beyond Voice question of the week to get his take on what business owners should be considering when deciding on today's cutting edge technologies - like voice - and the impact it could have on their business and their customers.

2020 is shaping up to be one of the most important and compelling election years for the United States. How candidates can better connect with and communicate with their constituents is going to be key. Like every election of the past two decades, technology will play a pivotal role in how candidates and their campaign managers strategize for the coming election.

Marc Strassman has spent most of his career at the intersection of technology and politics and is a life long believer in technology's ability to impact the democratic process.

Join us this week to get Marc's insights and perspectives on how today's voice technology can help the voice of the people, and the voice of the candidates, be heard.

The fundamentals of hiring and getting things done has shifted drastically in the past 15 years. The rise of the gig economy has impacted how companies get things done - no matter their size or their location.Voice technology is poised to impact every and any industry impacted by the computer keyboard and mouse and human resources and the gig economy is no different. Danny Beckett, Jr. is building Assemble to be the platform for the future of getting things done in the gig economy. If you are in the business of hiring and management of resources, this is the one for you. Danny speaks to how he see's voice technology impacting the gig economy and shares his insight and perspective on how companies will be getting things done.

Voice-first interfaces and voice assistants are being implemented in everything from microwaves to automobiles. The impact that voice technology is having and will continue to have on market research should not be underestimated. Erik, who has lead major market research efforts for brands like Johnson & Johnson, Youtube, McDonalds, Starbucks, and AT&T, understands the impact of voice on market research and shares his insight and perspective on this weeks episode of Beyond Voice.