#97 - Rupal Patel, CEO of VocalID INC - On giving people, brands and products their own vocal identity

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation to provide both individuals and brands their unique vocal personality – so they can be heard. My guest is Rupal Patel, Founder and CEO of VocalID INCRupal is an internationally renowned speech scientist. She was named a Voice Visionary in 2019 by Voicebot and listed amongst the 50 most creative in business by FastCompany, Rupal is a sought-after public speaker on the future of voice AI. Her work has been featured on TED, NPR, BBC, Wall Street Journal, and more. She holds two patents, a degree in Psychology from the University of Calgary, a Masters and Ph.D. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Toronto, with post-doctoral studies in speech acoustics at MIT.VocaliD, a voice AI company that creates unique synthetic voices. VocalID was founded on the believe that every individual should have a unique voice, regardless of their vocal ability.This triggered me, hence I invited Rupal to my podcast. We explore the wealth of opportunity of voice technology – not only for those that have lost their ability to speak, but also to give a voice to brands and to all the products we use on a day-to-day basis.Here are some of her quotes:We believe that vocal identity is such an important part of someone's personality of how they think of themselves, whether that's an individual or whether that is a company or an organization. The voice is really metaphorically and sometimes figuratively part of their identity.Our social mission behind what we do at vocal ID is to give voice to those who are underheard or not heard, because they have some kind of a speech disability.Voice is so connected to individuality, that if everything sounded the same, it also means that they all have the same value proposition, or they all have the same kind of roots.The ultimate kind of application is not where we become dependent on the technology but that the technology really facilitates interaction between humans.What I mean by that is if the technology is really helping us connect to individuals in ways that are meaningful, then it's done its job.During this interview, you will learn three things:Why voice is still so underutilized as a mechanism to connect and interact with the users of our productsHow voice can help take adoption of your product to new levels by its ability to create a unique bond with users, build trust and change behavior.That you role as a product owner is not to reinvent everything – sometimes you are way better of using readily available components and understand their value proposition in context of what you are trying to achieve.