The Future Tech Podcast, a podcast focusing on transformational technologies with host Richard Jacobs, interviewed our CEO, Rana Gujral, for their May 15th episode. The podcast titled Getting Emotional – Rana Gujral, Investor, Noted Speaker, and CEO of Behavioral Signals – Using Technology to Gain a Better Understanding of Speech, and the Emotional Context Within runs for just over 40 mins and definitely dives deep into our technology and Rana’s background as a leader.

Go ahead and listen below or grab the highlights as the podcaster wrote them:

Rana Gujral, an investor, noted speaker, and CEO of Behavioral Signals, delivers an interesting overview of the current state of AI regarding communication and user experience. He is also listed in Inc. Magazine as an “AI Entrepreneur to Watch” and “Top 10 Entrepreneurs to Follow in 2017” by Huffington Post.

Gujral has a proven track record in enterprise software, business building, and strategy, as well as emerging markets. Gujral’s successful past accomplishments include his tenure as founder and CEO of TiZE Inc., a groundbreaking SaaS platform. Gujral was an essential member of the team for Cricut Inc. where he worked to build an innovative product for their DIY community which brought them to profitability within just 2 years. And earlier, Gujral held leadership positions with Logitech S.A. and Kronos Inc.

Gujral discusses the AI that they are developing which, remarkably, understands the emotional context of what we speak. Gujral and his predecessors have long pondered the question: can you truly have artificial intelligence machines without emotions? Gujral states that this emotional element is a critical piece of voice interactions. With voice recognition accuracy now reaching its necessary apex, emotion and interaction is the next great frontier. Communicating intent is crucial. It’s not just what is being said, but how someone is saying it; context and emotion are the missing links that Gujral’s company is innovatively bringing into the mix. Gujral states that we gather more emotional context from hearing someone speak, much more than viewing facial expressions even.

The technology expert and entrepreneur talks about various business use cases and how technology is enhancing our communication. He explains how agents can speak with clients and enhance their experience by utilizing the technology, as it provides helpful input that improves communication. For example, the tech can provide input about the call in real time that may provide a range of information from, ‘you need to speak faster,’ ‘you sound angry, you should change your tone,’ or ‘the client sounds upset,’ etc., real-time information that can help improve the communication and thus enhance the experience for all parties involved.

Gujral acknowledges that it is an exciting time for AI in general. AI is here and taking a more prominent role in all business transactions, and successful, forward-thinking companies are integrating AI technologies into their technology stacks, for improved communication, efficiency, and success.