BBC Voice + AI: Interactive Experience in Voice

Joanne Kuai

22, February 2019 | London

Smart speaker sales have grown faster than any other consumer technology in recent years. As a new medium, it poses serious threats but also opportunities for media organisations. As the world’s leader in audio content, the BBC wants to retain its position. Hence, the BBC Voice & AI team was born.

Mukul Devichand, Executive Editor, BBC Voice & AI, says there are tens of millions of smart speakers sold so far, and unlike digital video or podcasts, BBC wants to lead native formats in the area and sees an opportunity to inform, educate and entertain.

The newly assembled team less than a year old is formed based on a multi-disciplinary mindset. Zoe Murphy, creative producer from the New Innovation Hub says the team includes editorial members such as journalists and radio produces, product people such as project manager, business analysts and developers, UX members such as designers and architects, and people with other expertise such as business development, marketing & audiences and many more.

Currently, the BBC offers domestic news bulletin, domestic sports bulletin, business news bulletin, global news summary, BBC TV video news summary that is already available on Alexa, Google, Siri. The BBC Voice & AI team are also striving to achieve its public service goal but servicing audience cross all demography.

Public service objectives

One example is developing a voice experience for children.

During a demonstration at the headquarters of the BBC at Portland Place in London, a room of dozens of media practitioners from across the globe witnessed how audiences can interact with BBC Voice using a smart speaker.

One can simply ask the smart speaker “open CBeebies” and choose which game they want to play, what stories they want to hear or have a chat with their favourite CBeebies’ characters.

“Interacting with audio opens up a world of exciting opportunities to explore for the BBC’s content for children. Starting with CBeebies, we are going to release a number of pieces for children over the coming months, working closely with the much-loved characters and stories,” says Devichand. “The technology is still new, and we’re experimenting with what works well and what our audiences really want on these new platforms. High-quality content for children is key to the BBC’s public service goals, and we are really excited about achieving that in this new medium.”

Mr Murphy adds that the aim is also to shift from broadcasting style to something more conversational and provide people with a more interactive news experience. The organisational goal is to reach more under 35-year-old audiences.

Devichand and Murphy were speaking at the Product Development and Design Thinking Summit, which took place in London 21-22 February 2019. As part of the 9th Data & AI for Media Week, the event aims to inspire participants to imagine how to earn revenue with AI-driven products for their own media companies. https://sanfrancisco.dataaimedia.org/

The Data & AI for Media Week was created in 2013 by World Newsmedia Network’s Martha Stone Williams. Since then, the conference has been held in London five times, Hong Kong once and twice in New York. The 10th Data & AI for Media Week is planned for San Francisco and Silicon Valley for 29 April to 3 May 2019. https://sanfrancisco.dataaimedia.org/