Greetings Fringe Folk, wherever you happen to be.

Technology is a miracle. Until it takes over and becomes your overlord. But for the time being, it needs to serve a purpose, right?

Well, get ready for the wave of AI assistants. Some are more refined than others. Not quite an AI Avengers “assemble” moment, but hey, we’re still early on all this stuff.

If the current pace continues to accelerate, well, 2024 is going to look very different from 2023. Could be exciting or scary, but it will definitely be interesting.

AI Assistants, at your service

Eleven Labs

First, let’s talk about Eleven Labs. They will turn any written text into audio, and sometimes the results are just… wow.

Take a look at this short demo:

Use this if you want to turn written content into audio, which opens up more channels for you.

And looks like they now offer multilingual support:

Speech to Text

Speaking of audio tools, Speechmatics offers “The Most Accurate and Inclusive Speech Technology”.

If you want to turn audio into written content, this is one way. They’re also developing speech to translation, which they plan to release soon.

I recorded a brief demo so you can see it in action:

Content Creation & Copywriting Tools

Alicent and ChatABC promise to help you with your writing and content creation. Alicent is a chrome browser extension that can scan the content of the current page you’re on, and rewrite, summarize, or whatever enters your prompting brain. I had it scan my LinkedIn page and rewrite my resume.

ChatABC let’s you better organize all of your GPT interactions into folders. It also offers better collaboration tools with team members.

Alicent is a monthly subscription, and ChatABC is a one-time payment. And both are powered by ChatGPT.

Wondercraft

Wondercraft AI will take your written content and also generate audio, but with a specific focus on podcasting. I had it generate an intro for a podcast idea I’m working on. Take a listen:

Btw, I don’t have an interview scheduled with Mr. Rotman. That was just for demo purposes only.

Apple’s Health Coach

Apple plans to launch its own AI assisted health coach app called ‘Quartz’. Amazon and now Apple see big bucks in the space.

The goal is to keep you healthy. Reminding you when to exercise, how you’re sleeping, giving you a pat on the back when you’re doing well, and a kick in the pants when you need it.

This service plans to launch in 2024. But we all know how plans can go.

A note for the overwhelmed

With a flurry of AI assistants sure to flood the market, it’s important that we understand that they cannot do the meaningful work for you. That’s still up to you and your team.

Also, don’t even try to keep up. The rate of change in this space is extreme. It’s a bit “hypey” too, and many of these tools need more time to develop. That said, things look promising on these early use-cases.

In other news

Life is like a box of chocolates

Who holds the record for the largest box of chocolates in the world? That would be Russell Stover. Over 5000 pounds of confectionary delight (or horror), the brand wanted to celebrate its 100 year anniversary in style.

Attracting Talent with Company Values

It’s a thing, and it’s becoming more of an expected thing with Gen Z. According to LinkedIn research:

Of course, when you think about brand experience overall, EX, or employee experience, is a critical driver (if not the most critical) in making it memorable.

Oh Snap!

Snap is now offering AR Enterprise Services (ARES), a “Shopping Suite” to brands that can help them get more customers with, you guessed it, AR try-on experiences.

Snap’s new Shopping Suite SaaS product offers these features:

• AR try-on to virtually try new styles of clothing, footwear and accessories (users can also upload an image of themselves and see how these items might look on them)

• 3D viewer to look at a product from all angles

• Fit and sizing recommendation tech based on the users’ body shapes

Read more here.

Finally

Rep AI + ChatGPT

Finally! We’re in beta testing with a few sites, and it looks promising. With a mix of behavioral and conversational intelligence, we’re hitting that sweet spot for eCommerce stores.

Here’s a nice sample:

Here are the highlights. With ChatGPT and Rep, your AI will now be able to:

• Scan and absorb your entire website and use it to answer FAQs (preliminary tests have been quite good)

• Browse through your entire catalog autonomously, which means that your Concierge's answers will always be up to date

• Hone in on your brand's voice and tone. We've tested this and it can get pretty ridiculous if you train it to be funny, childlike, and inform it to tell a joke or two. It's amazing 👏🏼

• Offer multi-language support (we're hoping that will be deployed sooner than later, but the results are promising)

• Have more intelligent conversations with shoppers (it can pick up on slang, idioms, and contextual clues)

What does all this mean for shoppers? They will:

• Find products even faster

• Get better, more complete answers to questions

• Always have the most up to date information on products, sales, discounts, and more

• Have more relevant conversations your Concierge

You know where to find us if you want more info. May will be a big month for Rep AI.

Everyday people

Saw this the other day and it made me smile:

Have a great weekend.

Paul