Christopher P. Willis on Using AI to Create a Better User Experience with Better Content

In this episode, Frank and Andy speak to Christopher P. Willis about Using AI to Create a Better User Experience with Better Content.Certainly, if you have ever you read instructions or product documentation that left you annoyed and confused, then you can appreciate the work he does with Acrolinx.Audible  Audible is a sponsor! Click this link and score a free audio book on us! If you subscribe, you help out the podcast. Everyone wins!Transcript 00:00:00 BAILey Hello and welcome to data driven. 00:00:02 BAILey In this episode Frank and Andy speak with Christopher Willis about how artificial intelligence can help bake brands create congruent content across cultures, languages and writers. 00:00:13 BAILey One quick word of correction. 00:00:15 BAILey Frank made the assumption that CPO was chief product Officer. 00:00:19 BAILey Chris is actually Chief pipeline officer. 00:00:21 BAILey In addition to being chief marketing Officer, Acrolinx currently does not have a chief product officer. 00:00:28 BAILey Frank should know by now what happens when you assume anything. 00:00:32 BAILey I'll have a chat with him later. 00:00:34 BAILey For now, enjoy the show. 00:00:44 Frank Hello and welcome to data driven, the podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. 00:00:52 Frank If you'd like to think of data as the new oil, then you can think of us like Car Talk because we focus on where the rubber meets the virtual road and with me on this epic road trip down the information. 00:01:04 Frank Superhighway as always is Andy Leonard. 00:01:07 Frank How's it going Andy? 00:01:08 Andy Good Frank, how are you doing? 00:01:10 Frank I'm doing great, I'm doing great. 00:01:11 Frank It's a beautiful Tuesday morning here in the DC area. 00:01:14 Frank We're recording this on September 28th and I can't believe it's already October. 00:01:22 Andy Almost gosh, yeah, yeah. 00:01:23 Frank Almost October. 00:01:25 Andy It's it's been beautiful fall weather. 00:01:28 Andy Past few days here in sunny Farmville, VA. 00:01:33 Andy And I'm really enjoying that. 00:01:35 Andy Got a lot of outdoors work done in the past few days and that's always a good thing. 00:01:40 Frank Yeah, we just built the trampoline for the kids and that was a was a lot of fun. 00:01:46 Frank 'cause the. 00:01:46 Frank Instructions were horrible. 00:01:50 Andy Did you get one with that big net around it? 00:01:53 Andy Keep from bouncing off and 'cause otherwise it should come with a coupon for a free cast. 00:01:58 Frank Freecast and free healthcare that'd be funny. 00:02:00 Andy Yes, yes, that's right, yeah. 00:02:03 Frank Yeah, so without further ado I'd like to introduce we have this. 00:02:07 Frank Awesome guest today. 00:02:08 Frank We've been really lucking out on terms of folks coming to us and and suggesting guests for us, which is quite refreshing, actually. 00:02:17 Frank So so today we have with us Christopher Willis, Acrolinx Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Product Officer. 00:02:25 Frank Christopher is an expert in technology, marketing and brand alignment alignment with over 20 years of experience in with some of the world biggest tech names including Perfecto. 00:02:35 Frank Kmag and Cambridge technology group. 00:02:39 Frank And through his work at Acrolinx, he's become a renowned thought leader on the topics of content governance and brand alignment. 00:02:46 Frank He's also an expert on AI and how AI can help. 00:02:50 Frank Big brands can great create congruent content across cultures, language and writers. 00:02:56 Frank Acrolinx creates tools for developing content that feels human, relatable, and compassionate. 00:03:01 Frank It's already used by some of the biggest brands in the technology world today, so welcome to the show, Chris. 00:03:09 Christopher Thank you, I'm excited about your trampoline. 00:03:12 Frank Well, thank you. 00:03:12 Frank Thank you. 00:03:13 Frank You should come on down I. 00:03:14 Frank I think you're on the East Coast somewhere in Boston. 00:03:17 Christopher I am outside of Boston, yes? 00:03:18 Frank Awesome cool cool you never know 'cause sometimes people will put where they used to live on LinkedIn and not update that so. 00:03:26 Christopher Nope, haven't gone anywhere in what a year? 00:03:27 Christopher And a. 00:03:27 Christopher Half if not. 00:03:28 Frank Right, right? 00:03:29 Christopher A lot, not a lot of travel, yeah? 00:03:30 Frank Year and a half in the two week lockdown. 00:03:35 Frank Well, welcome to the show so so. 00:03:38 Frank Tell me about what so, so you're a CMO and a CPO. 00:03:43 Frank That's that's, uh. 00:03:45 Frank That's an interesting mix I I can see how the two are related, but can you explain kind of like what it is you do for acrolinx and maybe a little bit about. 00:03:54 Christopher So I do a bunch of things. 00:03:55 Christopher I I I joined the company to run marketing and marketing has. 00:04:00 Christopher A lot of. 00:04:00 Christopher Reach in this organization because of what we do and who we sell to. 00:04:05 Christopher So I reach into pipeline. 00:04:07 Christopher I reach into the product process on product marketing in there and come from a background where this approach really resonates and makes a lot of sense and the way that we collect and build and use data is very aligned to the way that I've. 00:04:24 Christopher I've built content in the past. 00:04:28 Frank Interesting, interesting. 00:04:29 Frank So the the product at acrolinx it it. 00:04:33 Frank It uses AI to create content. 00:04:36 Frank So, so like what does that do is? 00:04:38 Christopher Different so we are. 00:04:38 Frank It kind of NLP. 00:04:40 Christopher We're improving content, so we're we're about being improving the quality and effectiveness of enterprise. 00:04:47 Christopher Content so the easiest way to think about what we do is everybody that writes everybody that owns a content organization, whether that's in a development group with technical documentation or product manuals, or marketing content enablement content, internal education. 00:05:04 Christopher All these folks have a whiteboard in their office and. 00:05:07 Christopher On that whiteboard are all the components of language, the way that they want to create their content. 00:05:12 Christopher It's the tone of voice. 00:05:13 Christopher It's the clarity level education level of their of their readers. 00:05:17 Christopher It's the amount of compassion, emotion, inclusiveness that they want in their contents. 00:05:22 Christopher The words that they want to use and that they don't want. 00:05:24 Christopher Use, it's all up there on the whiteboard. 00:05:26 Christopher They feel good about it. 00:05:28 Christopher They've defined essentially the voice of their group or their organization. 00:05:32 Christopher The problem with that whiteboard is that it's in their office and nobody can see it, and even if they could, we don't have a writers pool in the world anymore. 00:05:40 Christopher We're all writers when you go to work, a byproduct of your work...