Conversational Video AI
Conversational Video AI
I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to work in the Conversational Video AI space. It's a technology and personal journey that spanned eight years' worth of work across the nonprofit and startup worlds. I was first introduced to Conversational Video AI in its earlier technological iteration while working with the Executive Director as a communications specialist at USC Shoah Foundation and the groundbreaking Dimensions in Testimony project.
Dimensions in Testimony paved the way for interactive biographical Testimony. Featuring Holocaust survivors, the program used pre-recorded videos combined with natural language technology to support interactive learning across schools and museums.
My work on the project centered on supporting the producer and Executive Director of the Foundation to communicate this human rights and technological story to key stakeholders worldwide.
In my latest role at StoryFile, the continuation, and evolution of Conversational Video AI has taken shape in solving pressing business and education problems. The company continues to utilize interactive Testimony while also pivoting into the enterprise space in offering support for real-world business solutions for employee experience, hiring processes, banking experience, and much more.
Major Product Launch - Distilling Research and Elevating a Range of Voices
In 2022, StoryFile launched its SaaS B2B platform Conversa for enterprise audiences. The launch marked a pivotal point for StoryFile to move from its original B2C consumer to a B2B enterprise focus. As Chief of Staff, I supported the product marketing and strategy efforts, including the following:
Building a product messaging document and sales guide
Co-authoring the Conversa product website.
Authoring a white paper
Developing a thought leadership blog series featuring the CEO, CTO, and a variety of employee voices that contributed to the building of Conversa 1.0 and 2.0 rollouts.
Using Conversa technology to demonstrate talking to StoryFile CEO Stephen Smith.
These efforts were the first attempt to assemble a decade's worth of research from the CTO, co-founders, and product and production team into consumable insights for an enterprise audience.
How to Communicate about Conversa's AI technology?
Developing relevant messaging for the Conversa product launch was critical. Over the past year, the generative AI landscape has exploded with new products, capabilities, and essential discussions on ethics and policy.
During the initial 2022 launch, one of the significant realizations centered on the tagline:
We make AI feel more human.
Rather than being "human-like" or a variation that de-emphasizes humans, the StoryFile team sought to acknowledge the history of conversational video AI and its earlier pre-Conversa iterations connected to sharing Holocaust survivor testimony. One of the critical differentiators between Convera technologies and competitors centered on filming real people or with digital re-enactments, going through an extensive archival process that worked directly with estates, descendants, and historians to ensure accuracy and an ethical representation.
The centering of humans was a critical component of the storytelling, question-asking technology, and users' roles in asking questions and participating in the AI training.
