AiC Episode 105

In this episode, Teri welcomes Dr. Simon Landry, an expert with a PhD in audiology, to share his insights into the market trends of what is happening in the voice space.

Welcome, Dr. Landry!

Dr. Landry has an amazing background with a PhD in audiology. He has applied his skills in not only creating some amazing Alexa skills, but also in creating an incredible resource for people in the voice space under the brand of Voice Market Data.

He combines his expertise with statistics, and allows us to look at the data of the skills we have in the market, find market trends, and identify opportunities in the voice space. He is an Acadian and is very passionate about empowering francophones in minority situations (Acadians being one of them).

Background and Getting into Voice

  • He has a PhD in Audiology and was at one point one of the global experts in how sound interacts with other senses to form our perception.
  • He worked with a VR startup where they were trying to help people touch virtual objects.
  • His interest in breaking down perception came about from his university professor’s support and guidance.
  • His first experience with voice technology was when his brother-in-law gave them a Google Home.
  • Reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crushing It and listening to a related podcast, his interest in voice technology was heightened. He wanted to do something fun in the voice space by creating an interesting skill.
  • He used Invocable (Now known as Voiceflow) to create his first skill.
  • A year later he got involved with VoiceTech TO, a Toronto-based community of voice technology enthusiasts. He demod his Alexa skill, Poop Detective, at VoiceTech TO, and it became very popular which made him realize the huge opportunity in the space.

Voice Market Data with Dr. Simon Landry

Voice Market Data

  • His journey to creating this website started when he created an app to share and discover street art.
  • As he was working on his second Alexa skill, he wanted to find out what the popular skills in the Amazon skill store were, so he wouldn’t waste his time building a skill that wouldn’t go anywhere or help anyone.
  • He discovered that there was no real way for someone to understand what people are doing in the voice space and what the trends are. He knew he could build such a resource, so he did, and that’s how Voice Market Data came about.
  • The website provides data on what the most popular skills are generally.
  • He will soon be releasing a tool that will enable people to play around with the website by checking out the data on a skill they have an idea for, so they can figure out how to create the best skill. For example, when he was creating Poop Detective, he knew there were several poop related skills, so he knew he needed to create a fairly unique skill.
  • There was no way to verify the semantic difference between poop detective and some other similar skill. He therefore wants to build a function where someone can type in their target invocation and see how semantically different it is from what exists.

The Influence of Keywords in Invoking Skills

  • He has no idea where keywords play there because they are not present in the marketplace. They are not present in the listings but he believes that they are used in ranking skills based on the search term.

The Accuracy of Data

  • The analytical data in the market may not be very accurate which concerns him a lot.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

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