But the issue resurfaced again recently, when I encountered a speech recognition system that United Airlines was using to offer arrival and departure information on its 800 number. Nuance and SpeechWorks are the two dominant providers of speech recognition systems. I'd ask Tellme for a traffic report, for example. Only when I adopted a terrible French accent could I confuse Tellme into delivering the ski report for King Pine, N.H., instead of Killington, Vt. Now, you can get a stock quote using the automated phone service, and we have highly skilled reps who are having more complex conversations with clients.
Speech recognition can also save money.
And speech can dramatically reduce hang-ups and shorten call time. A few execs I spoke to also made the argument that speech is safer than Touch-Tone systems, because callers using cell phones while driving don't have to look at their keypads. AirTran CIO Rocky Wiggins says his company signed a contract with SpeechWorks in May of last year and rolled out its system in January. Others are experimenting with speech apps targeted at their own employees. One of United Airlines' first projects of this type was automating its employee reservation system in 1998 for its more than 120,000 United employees.