label: Me

text: For coming in.


label: Voice 2

text: Hey, it's a pleasure to meet you. This


text: such a beautiful office. Have you guys been here long?


text: Yeah, Justin.


text: Two years.


text: Like it.


text: Okay. So what have you got for us today?


text: I'm really glad you asked.


text: Well, look, I have a bit of an agenda here set out. I was hoping we'd start with just some


text: introductions to understand each of your roles and kind of how they touch


text: voice afterwards. We'll


text: look at a a little bit of a special, tooling that I had set up


text: for today's meeting, then talk about, know, just some the things that make Rhyme special, but


text: really, what I just wanna spend the most of the time today doing is just talking about VoiceAI at at Assurant.


text: Some of the, the concerns you have, I understand, maybe around voice


text: quality or other things. If you had a magic wand, you'd love to change.


text: I do have a special demo prepared for you using some of our technology and then


text: certainly left time for just open conversation, questions, and next steps.


text: Sound good?


text: That works. Just so you know, reliability and risk


text: are top of mind for us. Cool.


text: No. Let's


text: let's get into that.


label: Voice 3

text: That's, before


text: we do that,


text: if you could just do a brief round of intros, that'd be awesome.


text: Sure.


text: I'm Dana, CX. I own CSAT and Containment.


text: Marcus, ITN Systems,


text: integration, security, uptime.


text: And PREA procurement. Cost, risk, commercial terms.


text: Great. And I am somewhat new at Rhyme, you know, I've been in Voice AI now


text: three years. I was at one point the first employee at a company called Deepgram, and then spent years in intelligent voice and most recently Gradium.


text: And, yeah, no, I I really am excited


text: talk with you all today. So again, it was


text: Dana, Marcus, and who is the third employee?


text: Preah.


text: Priya from procurement. Got it.


text: So let's see here.


text: Did I get pre or from procurements?


text: Oh, shit. My my system didn't capture that, but let's not worry about that.


text: So we're we're doing a a a copilot today that organizes what


text: you say into a live shareable, edible


text: summary. Everything's completely encrypted and lives only on device.


text: It's just to really organize my thoughts. I have the worst handwriting in the world. So


text: that's why we're doing it that way.


text: But yeah, let me tell you. And so that's this.


text: Let me do again


text: about us. So the


text: here was actually came together in 2022. We


text: started by Lilly and Brooke Canaries.


text: And they're all well, two or three linguists, and


text: one an engineer. And we really just took a different approach


text: to to building voice models and specifically TTS.


text: Whereas a lot of the our contemporaries are are, you know, using the same


text: podcasts and actor generated speech data, we actually have our own


text: So we started by setting up a studio and recording thousands of hours natural high quality training


text: with very


text: specifically made content.


text: But, you know, more important than that as the proof, you know,


text: the the more natural Nuance TTS that we


text: we build is now powering tens of millions of phone calls every month.


text: Major restaurant change, and health care telecom, and enterprise.


text: Just recently, actually, we did a survey. We


text: through an academic group, conducted a


text: 100,000 phone calls using our voices and those of two of our competitors.


text: The largest competitors. And we we found that although no one loves her


text: receiving unsolicited calls, we had the lowest hang up rate


text: amongst others. That actually, you know, at scale starts to be a very significant


text: margin. We also were able to complete the calls


text: the fastest.


text: We also you know, generally, we would measure KPIs


text: with, you know, sort of increase in sales and not just voice quality,


text: but a real world impact.


text: Yeah. We're all nice and cognigy. It works, but


text: voices feel a bit robotic, which doesn't help when customers are stressed about a


text: claim.


text: Right. And for my side, even small changes can introduce risk.


text: Latency spikes, integration touches, we can't afford downtime.


text: And


text: we get pitched constantly.


text: We need a clear business case.


text: Sorry. Just to, to double click on one thing you


text: said about the downtime. What is the business impact of that?


text: Yeah. Well, during peak, spikes hit Hamel time. And that flows straight into cost. And SLAs. And on the customer side,


text: spikes and integration, is what?


text: Primarily, handle time up


text: escalations up, cost up.


text: And potential SLA exposure.


text: Got it.


text: What else is is broken with voice at Assurant these days?


text: Honestly, it's not


text: broken. It's


text: serviceable.


text: Just not delightful.


text: And changing


text: players make it delightful.


text: Voices that sound reassuring, less robotic.


text: That reduce repeats and keep customers calm.


text: Plus predictable reliability,


text: and clear ROI.


text: So you mentioned keeping customers


text: calm. Can you say a bit more about that?


text: Yeah. When someone calls about a crack


text: phone or warranty issue,


text: steadier voice could reduce friction.


text: Fewer agent agent moments,


text: Right? But


text: any swab has to be low lift security cleared, and ideally not a rip and replace. We move carefully. So


text: in terms of the reducing the customer friction, how would you measure that in terms of the success criteria?


text: We'd look at containment, CSAT deltas, maybe transfer rates and real time. But we'd need to align internally first.


text: And no commitments today.


text: Yes, of course.


text: What about the


text: the small changes introducing risk? Can you speak more to that?


text: Sure. Even small things can cascade at our scale.


text: A little extra latency, integration,


text: can create downstream


text: We


text: have very tight SLAs.


text: And what's the impact of not meeting an SLA?


text: Financial penalties, client dissatisfaction,


text: That's why we move cautiously.


text: So so far, we've talked about in terms of the the high level problem,


text: meeting SLAs,


text: is is something about changing vendors, but then adding latency


text: causes SLA breaches


text: Latency spikes increase costs, and then fusion


text: agent mistakes can increase customer friction, which reduces customer satisfaction.


text: That's a fair capture. High level but accurate.


text: Marcus, what about from your perspective?


text: That's where I'm at too.


text: Stability, security review, low lift,


text: that's the lens.


text: Then we'd need to align


text: What if you had a magic wand? What else could really increase


text: delightfulness that we talked about earlier?


text: Honestly, if a calmer voice reduced


text: repeat calls and


text: increased containment without


text: increasing handle time.


text: That would be great.


text: But, again,


text: careful process.


text: Yeah. No. I I I get that. You you move very carefully over there.


text: Exactly.


text: Caution's part of the culture.


text: I'd love to, actually show you a little bit of,


text: few of our voices and how they work. But before they do,


text: what else do you think we should know about kind of concerns you may have?


text: Just that we get a lot of generic pitches


text: Specificity matters.


text: Yeah.


text: Useful first pass, though.


text: So you have concerns about vendor changes and the the SLAs are very important.


text: Success is measured by containment CSAT scores and the the transfer rates


text: And


text: I I think that's everything we we've covered. Is that about accurate?


text: Broadly, yes.


text: We still need to align internally, but that's a decent summary.


text: Great. Well, thanks for that. Yeah. Lots to kind of dig into there, but perhaps the the best


text: way I can do that


text: is to show you


text: what we can do. So let me actually do a a simulated


text: call based on sort of what I know about your business. Is it


text: fair to say that, phone warranty is a significant part of your business?


text: Yes. Device protection is a big line.


text: Just one thing. For calling NorthStar. In a real setting, we need all


text: but I know this is just a mock up.


text: Hey, this is Colin. I have a problem with my phone.


text: Hi. Thanks for calling NorthStar Device Protection.


text: This is a demo, and the call may be recorded.


text: How can I help today?


text: You you can pause to LGBT. We're just gonna listen now.


text: Hey, North Star, could you repeat that? Got it.


text: Hello, Colin. I'm here to help with your phone issue.


label: Voice 4

text: To get started, may I have the ZIP code associated with your device protection policy?


text: Thanks, Conn.


text: Your Apple iPhone 16 Pro is covered for accidental damage under an active policy.


text: Can you tell me the date when the damage happened?


text: July


text: Thanks for the damage.


text: Accidental.


text: Yeah. I mean, I was just preparing for this really important meeting.


text: And I was so excited that I I knocked my phone off the desk and I cracked the screen.


text: Oops.


text: Yeah. Got it. From the


text: dangerous accident. Naturalistic.


text: Does your phone still power on and work?


text: Tom felt calmer.


text: Plus


text: robotic. Yes, it


text: does.


text: But I'd want to see it in our context, at scale.


text: Same.


text: Chat, you


text: can pause.


text: First. Pausing now. Do


text: you still have


text: Sorry, continue.


text: Do you still have to


text: Yeah, know I still have


text: it. No


text: problem.


text: Thanks for confirming, Colin.


text: To recap,


text: on July 11, you accidentally knocked your phone off the desk, cracking the screen.


text: The phone still powers on, and you still have the device.


text: Is that correct?


text: Yes.


text: Your claim CLM demo two zero four nine. Submitted for the accidental damage on July Your deductible for screen repair is $29.


text: And some secure document upload link to your phone to continue the claim.


text: Would you like me to send that now, or is there something else I can help you with?


text: You can send it.


text: The secure document upload link is sent to your phone ending in 0148. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?


text: Is there like a specialist I could talk to?


text: I'll transfer you now to a specialist who can help further with your claim.


text: The summary of your case will travel with you, so no need to repeat anything.


text: Thank you for your patience.


text: Hi, Colin. I'm the device claim specialist helping you with your claim


text: CLM demo.


label: Voice 6

text: 2049 for your Apple iPhone 16 Pro.


text: Est bien ça va


text: Bonjour Colin, je peux vous aider à confirmer la situation de votre sinistre.


label: Voice 7

text: Pour votre iPhone seize pro.


text: Plus souhaitez-vous vérifier exactement


text: No, I think that's everything. I hope you have a wonderful day and thank you


text: much for your time.


text: You're very welcome, Conn.


text: If you need anything else, don't hesitate to reach out.


text: Have a


text: So that concludes the


text: the interactive demo there. What did you guys think of the voice you just heard?


text: It feels smoother than what we have, less robotic.


text: I would want to test it in a real flow.


text: With our customers.


text: That's funny. I I would like to test it in a real flow too. Continue, though. We're


label: Voice 5

text: we're


text: What else did you hear?


text: Senior.


text: Useful first look.


text: No commitments. We need to define success and align internally.


text: Yeah. No. I love that.


text: So just a bit of context. Obviously, this is something I I


text: set up in a few minutes myself. I'm just the sales guy. I'm I'm not an engineer or an expert.


text: I I picked one of our voices that, was more formal and professional


text: and, obviously, also American as as that's your your main market.


text: You know, I wanted energy and empathy


text: and and that's you know, we we actually had a


text: very big process when we started


text: picking the voices for Koda. We


text: we have a statistical way of comparing them to pick out the


text: ones. And then with those, we still allow you to choose which is most appropriate, and then some customers will have


text: certain voices for certain geographies or things like this.


text: But hopefully, it's a a helpful starting point to see some of our capabilities.


text: Yeah. It was helpful to hear.


text: We'd need the right folks in the room if this goes further.


text: So,


text: for now,


text: Yeah. So tell me, do you have any questions at this point?


text: Not right


text: now.


text: Send a short recap and we'll take it from there.


text: I'm sure you must have a couple questions.


text: Just a quick sanity check.


text: Are you thinking


text: weeks or months before even a limited pilot?


text: Months.


text: We plan carefully.


text: Oh, yeah. And that's That's fair. Generally, how how does timing work with you guys?


text: We follow structured cycles.


text: We'll align internally first,


text: No rush.


text: Sounds good.


text: And


text: Yes. Generally, how does decision making


text: work?


text: Cross functional.


text: CX IT procurement and the business, no single owner.


text: Uh-huh,


text: and then And procurement comes in when there's a defined business case.


text: Do you have do you have a a current contract with with your vendor?


text: Yes. Active agreement in place.


text: Oh, when does that expire?


text: One moment.


text: We do. Yes. I'm not comfortable sharing the exact


text: date right now.


text: More