The Bot Builder – Dr. Andrey Esaulov, BotTalk – Voice Tech Podcast ep.031

The voice space is much bigger than just Google and Amazon, and there are many ways to develop voice applications. What’s missing in the voice design space? A simple markup language.

Dr. Andrey Esaúlov is the CEO of SmartHouse Technologies and co-founder of BotTalk. SmartHouse Technologies specializes in consulting and development of voice applications and mobile apps. The company’s BotTalk product is a platform for creating Alexa Skills and Google Actions with a simple markup language.

From this conversation you’ll learn that you don’t need to be a developer to build sophisticated, context-aware voice applications that can benefit your business, or even become your business.

Highlights from the show:

• What was the core problem? Alexa and Google developing similar voice apps/solutions.
• What were the major concerns? Direction of API dialogue flow and internal Alexa tools.
• What was the solution? Simplified multiple platforms into easy-to-use programming tool to build and launch complicated apps.
• Birth of SmartHouse Technologies: Inability to recreate dialogue API.
• Birth of BotTalk: Simple markup technology was missing in voice space.
• What are BotTalk’s features? Multimodal, templates, API integration, session management, and direct deployment.
• What are popular case studies and demos? myNoise and The Floor is Lava!
• What are similarities and differences between BotTalk and Storyline? Voice experience, Google actions, write once to deploy, and session management.
• What are voice development options? Conversations, slots, and entry points.
• What are the dos and don’ts when creating a skill? Maintain focus, attention, and engagement; don’t include too many questions/paths, or build too much into voice apps.
• What to expect in the future? Voice-only apps, multimodality, and less frustration.

Links from the show:

• Manning Books: https://www.manning.com (40% off books with code: podvoicetech19)
• Best voice-first podcasts: http://bit.ly/2RYSG8t
• SmartHouse Technologies: https://smarthaustech.de/
• BotTalk: https://bottalk.de/
• BotTalk on Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/bottalk
• Job Finder in Germany: https://vimeo.com/281597058
• React Native: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/
• JSON: https://www.json.org/
• YAML: https://yaml.org/
• myNoise: https://mynoise.net/
• Storyline: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/storyline-7
• Jovo: https://www.jovo.tech/
• The Floor is Lava Game: https://www.amazon.com/Voice-Apps-That-Rock-Floor/dp/B07G2QFJ6D