从打字到后键盘时代的语音技术|Bilingual

铠形庐 2019-01-06

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大家好！“外企头条”栏目又跟大家见面了，我们今天推出艾玛迪斯亚太地区企业战略与业务开发副总裁西蒙 · 阿克约德撰写的文章《后键盘时代的语音技术，将如何革新旅游服务购买体验》。

请看详细报道↓↓↓

一直以来，打字都是一种记录文字的重要方式。自第一台打字机诞生于19世纪60年代末，识别度高的“QWERTY”键盘布局至今仍然可以在许多现代设备上见到。

Historically, typing was used as a way to record words. The first typewriter was invented in the late 1860s and the recognisable ‘QWERTY’ layout can be found on a number of modern devices today.

但是，打字并不是向技术设备发出指令和命令的唯一方式。

However typing wasn’t conceived as a means of giving instructions and commands to technology devices.

据研究表明，语音传递信息的速度要比在移动键盘上打字快三倍。加之其更易于使用，语音交互通信在未来取代键盘打字似乎已经成为顺理成章之事。

Speaking is reportedly three times faster than typing on a mobile keyboard. Therefore, it seems natural that at some point “voice to device” interfacing will bypass typing and the keyboard because it’s quicker and easier to use.

在过去很长一段时间内，语音识别技术一直无法准确地解读人类的话语。但最近，它迎来了新的发展拐点。

Until now voice recognition has not been sophisticated enough to accurately interpret human voices, but recently this has reached a turning point.

举例来说，微信之所以能够拥有超过十亿用户，这在某种程度上归功于其“一键通”的特性。使用语音向朋友发送信息既方便快捷，又高效实用。

For example, WeChat has over one billion users owing part of its success to its ‘push to talk’ feature. Using voice to dictate messages to friends is convenient, efficient and accessible.

同样，Amazon Alexa 最近将语音功能扩展到了时钟、插座和微波炉中，占据了智能家居市场的主导地位。

Similarly, Amazon Alexa dominates the Smart Home market by recently expanding in to voice-enabled clocks, plugs and microwaves.

这一切，意味着“语音时代”的开始。而旅游业，正处于语音变革前沿。消费者已经习惯了在日常生活中使用语音技术，键盘似乎变得有些多余。

This signifies the beginning of the ‘age of voice’ and the travel industry is on the cusp of adoption. Consumers are comfortably using voice technology in their everyday lives whilst the keyboard become silently redundant.

语音正在改变消费者的行为，也必将会彻底改变我们搜索和预订旅游服务的方式。

Voice is changing consumer behaviour, and inevitably, it will change the way we search and book travel forever.

旅游服务搜索和攻略

Travel search and inspiration

由于游客习惯在预订旅游服务时查看图片，可视化成为了旅游服务搜索的固有特性。

Because travelers are used to looking at images when it comes to booking travel, travel search is inherently visual.

翻看宣传手册、浏览旅行社网站、通过社交媒体查找攻略，是消费者在预订旅游服务前收集旅游信息的常用方法。

Flicking through brochures, browsing travel agency websites, scrolling social media for suggestions are all visual cues consumers take before booking.

旅游搜索和攻略向来注重个性化和可视化，语音技术对此无能为力，这也是“纯语音”方式的挑战和难点所在。

This is where “voice only” could be challenged – travel search and inspiration have always been very personal and very visual, but voice technology isn’t.

因此，为了满足消费者的需求，旅游服务公司必须将语音与画面结合起来。

Integrating voice with displays is then necessary for travel companies to satisfy consumers.

旅行社、航空公司、酒店等旅游服务公司应该集成语音技术与智能电视等所有带屏幕的设备，从而为游客直观呈现所购买的产品和服务。

Travel companies (agents, airlines, hotels etc.) will need to integrate voice technology with devices that have screens (such as smart televisions) to satisfy the traveler demand of seeing what they purchase.

旅游服务公司还需要一份全面的消费者服务使用数据资料，以便提供个性化的旅游体验。

Travel corporations will also need a comprehensive data profile on consumers using their services in order to offer personalised travel experiences.

支持语音功能的设备可更轻松地收集海量数据，因为相比填表或调查问卷，自然语言提供的信息更丰富。

It’s much easier for voice-enabled devices to collect large amounts of data because natural speech provides richer information, compared to consumers typing out forms or ticking boxes.

支持语音功能的设备可以从对话中提取更多信息。旅游服务公司在考虑投资语音技术时需要谨记这些要点。

A voice-enabled device can collect more from conversations than questionnaires. These are all key things to remember for travel companies thinking of investing in voice technology.

旅游服务预订

Travel booking

除了突破键盘搜索以外，使用语音技术预订旅游服务还需要进行其他调整，这主要是因为自然语言有情感上的变化，目前尚无法通过技术充分检测出来。

Travel booking using voice technology requires adaptation beyond search using a keyboard – mainly because natural speech has sentimental variations that can’t adequately be detected through technology (yet).

例如在预订酒店时，如果在搜索引擎中输入“酒店”，就会弹出与“酒店”相关的各种搜索结果，并且很可能十分符合搜索者的要求。

For example, using voice technology to book a hotel. When ‘hotel’ is typed in to a search engine, all types of results relating to ‘hotel’ pop-up and most likely fit what the searcher is looking for.

但是如果消费者使用语音进行搜索，则可能会采用非常口语化的方式，例如“我开会的地方附近有哪些好住处？”

But when a consumer is using voice to search – a colloquial question might be asked, such as “Where is good to stay near my meeting?”

这个问题可能会难倒语音助手，因为过多的关键词会带来不同的搜索结果，它只有理解了自然语言才能做出正确响应。

This question challenges a voice assistant because there are so many keywords that offer different search terms and it must interpret natural language in order to respond.

但是聊天机器人早已经吃透并攻克了这一难关。它们使用自然语言处理 (NLP) 和自然语言理解 (NLU) 让对话尽量贴近人类语言。

Chatbots have a good grasp of this concept already. They use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to mimic the similarities of human language.

最妙的是，消费者经常无法分辨出对方是聊天机器人还是人工坐席。在旅游服务预订环节中，语音功能的集成必须要将这种对话语言考虑在内。

The beauty of this is that consumers can’t always tell the difference between a chatbot and a human agent. It’s this conversational language that needs to be considered when thinking of integrating voice in travel bookings.

旅游服务公司应该充分利用他们在打字聊天机器人界面上所取得的成果，为实施语音技术提供便利。

Travel companies should leverage their work already done on their typed chatbot interfaces as it will stand them in good stead for when they implement voice technology.

旅行社的语音技术如何模仿与客户的自然对话也事关成败。

Success will also rely on how travel agents can mimic a natural conversation with the customer.

它应该能够理解和预测对方的回答，并尽可能采用最好的方式响应消费者（包括反问问题）。

The technology will need to understand and anticipate the answer, as well as being able to respond to the consumer in the best way possible (including asking questions in return).

传统搜索采用的是问答形式，例如“东京有哪些好的酒店？”然后消费者会得到整页的建议。

In traditional search it is a Q&A format. Eg “Great Hotels in Tokyo?” Resulting in a page of suggestions.

但是语音搜索开启了一场对话，因此它应该模拟人与人之间的对话，形成“有来有往”的良好交流模式。

However, voice search is the beginning of a conversation. So it should be built like a person to person conversation with the answers stimulating a “to and fro interchange”.

旅游服务

Travel servicing

语音技术已经渗透到了旅游服务中。万豪国际酒店已经与 Amazon Alexa 达成合作伙伴关系，将这一智能语音助手整合到万豪美国酒店的服务系统中。

Voice is already integrating into travel servicing. Marriott Hotels has struck a partnership with Amazon Alexa to be integrated into its hotels in the US.

顾客可以使用语音服务索要更多毛巾、订客房服务和关灯。在酒店这样的封闭环境中，顾客可能提出的问题是有限的。

Using voice, guests can ask for more towels, order room service, and turn the lights off. In a closed environment, like a hotel, there is a finite amount of questions a guest is likely to ask.

语音技术可以轻松存储常见问题的预期答案。但是，它必须要在提供优质客户服务和确保收集数据的隐私与安全性之间取得平衡。

This voice technology can easily store a bank of expected responses to these common questions. However, it’s important to strike the balance between offering good customer service and ensuring the privacy and protection of the data that’s being collected.

旅游业要想了解语音技术的优势，不妨多关注一下 Amazon 和 Google 等技术巨头和零售业等其他行业。

Keeping an eye on tech giants like Amazon and Google, as well as industries like retail, will give the travel industry a good idea of what to expect in voice.

语音技术甚至还可以改善航空公司在旅游服务方面的应急管理，尤其是当乘客在转机途中无法打字或看屏幕时。

Voice technology even has the potential to improve airline disruption management in travel servicing (especially when a person is in transit and can’t type or look at a screen.

为保持领先优势，旅游服务公司应该着力投资于领先的 NLP 和 NLU 聊天机器人，以帮助收集准确的对话数据。

To get ahead, travel companies should focus on having the best of breed NLP and NLU chatbots to help collect accurate conversational data in preparation.

语音技术现在已经足够成熟，旅游业可以考虑在 2019 年将其部署到与客户的互动中。

Voice technology is now advanced enough for the industry to consider deploying it to reach travel customers in 2019.

Amadeus 始终致力于发展新技术和创新产品，以助力改善旅游体验，而语音技术便是其中之一。

Amadeus is always looking at new technologies and innovations that can improve the travel experience, including voice technology.

在后键盘时代的未来，游客将使用语音技术搜索旅游攻略、预订假日活动或增强旅游体验。

Further ahead in a post-keyword world, travelers will use voice technology to search for travel inspiration, to book a holiday, or to enhance their experience when they travel.