WW Leverages Algolia to Power Enhanced Digital Experience with Wellow, Its New Voice App

Algolia, the leading Search and Discovery API for websites and mobile apps, announced that WW – the new Weight Watchers – selected Algolia’s powerful voice search to enable WW’s new smart voice application that launched on Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant.

With more than 43 million people in the United States now owning a smart speaker, voice-enabled technology has become a cornerstone of many households. WW recently launched Wellow, a voice application that makes food and weight tracking easier through hands-free interactions. This new platform allows members to make healthy habits part of their everyday routines without lifting a finger.

Wellow exemplifies conversational AI by allowing members to use their natural language to look up nutrition information or track food. WW is technology-enabled, science-led and community-focused in its approach to make wellness accessible to everyone. As the company continues to innovate its digital member experience, WW selected Algolia as its voice search platform of choice.

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“The companies that are most successful today not only listen to their customers, but anticipate what customers want and need – and deliver it,” said Nicolas Dessaigne, Co-founder and CEO of Algolia. “Wellow shows that WW listens to consumer needs and is embracing voice search technology to deliver digital innovation that makes their members’ lives easier and allows them to focus on their wellness journey. We look forward to continuing our work with WW to further learn, invest and innovate in this flourishing area.”

Algolia, which has partnered with WW since 2014, helps reach members in a new channel through voice search with a combination of language intent detection, as well as WW’s natural language processing and mapping algorithms. A strong voice user experience relies on technology that understands the user’s request on the first search and returns quality results – regardless of “verbal typos” – without scrolling or browsing.

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“Our goal is to be the world’s partner in wellness and to do that we need to make developing healthy habits a seamless experience that is technology-enabled, both through our app and with voice technology,” said Nic Chikhani, Vice President of Product at WW. “Our new Wellow platform makes voice search easy, which makes finding and tracking a healthy meal easy – and that’s the starting point of developing a healthy habit. Algolia helps us to unlock the potential for how voice search can enrich our members’ lives. Its technology allows us to process users’ complex queries, providing the right results the first time.”

“We’ll continue to invest in this new platform by enabling new applications such as browsing through recipes and easily following them through a ‘cook along’ experience,” adds Diogo Ortega, Senior Product Manager for Conversational AI at WW. “We’re excited about the possibilities that will be unlocked with new voice-enabled devices, such as ‘smart displays’, and voice assistants in the car.”

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