You post, we cast

South Korean startup, NextNest, has launched Wecast.ai, a broadcasting platform for the widely used voice assistant technologies, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Wecast makes voice broadcast creation a simple task for anyone. Following an intuitive interface, users simply type their messages, just as they would on Twitter or Facebook, to be broadcast on smart speakers all over the world.

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According to Voicebot.ai, smart speaker installations reached 76 million units in 2019. Yet without a “killer app”, usage has been mostly confined to playing music, smart home commands, and information queries. NextNest aims to improve and increase users’ interactions with smart speakers by making voice cast creation accessible even to the non-programmer through its Wecast platform.

“Both Alexa and Google assistant are incredible devices but have not yet reached their potential as devices to connect people,” said Sam Seo, CEO of NextNest. “There are many voice app tools that claim “no coding necessary”, but in the end require some familiarity with coding and server structure. Just as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook made it easy for people who aren’t web developers to get their thoughts and messages out on the internet, Wecast will make using smart speakers more accessible, interactive, and fun.”

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Wecast.ai offers standardized Alexa Skills and Google Actions that broadcast content residing on users’ Wecast pages. Users are only required to name their Skill or Action and provide message content, although additional features and settings are available to customize interaction. Wecast takes the voice apps through the Amazon or Google standard application process, and upon approval, they are ready to be played on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or both.

NextNest’s ultimate aim is to bring innovation to virtual assistant AI technology, and Wecast provides a springboard to do so through the wealth of content generated on its platform.

“To truly improve virtual assistant AI, it needs to be fed massive quantities of short audio or text content, as opposed to the long readable page content that currently drives AI improvement. We have developed a system that can gather this data while providing users a more fun experience” said CTO of NextNest, Seongmin Kim, Adj. professor in SW Engineering at Jungbu University, South Korea.

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