Josh.ai — the Voice Assistant
A new smart speaker in Series A funding
There are more voice assistants entering the market and one of them is Josh.ai, they were featured on the 30th of April 2020 in TechCrunch. After receiving $11 million Series A round their total funding is up to $22 million.
This company seems to be operating more in the professionally installed space.
The CEO Alex Capecelatro claims that there is a difference between the current products on the market and the user interface.
Within this area there seems to be a possibility for a niche product.
Josh.ai is the kind of company that has an explanation for their logo on the website:
“Josh is a home’s best friend. Much like a dog, Josh is intelligent, responsive, and learns his owner’s commands. Unlike other smart home controls that either can’t roam by your side, or only know one trick, Josh combines all aspects of smart homes, into one friendly, well-trained responder. Josh is your companion, and always happy to see you come home.”
Possibly another question: is josh magic?
Most of the products they sell go into ‘single-family homes’.
If you consider how many companies there are installing voice assistants then why should there not be a space for smaller specialised smart speaker products.
On the surface Josh.ai seems like a nice company to be with.
According to the interview in TechCrunch they consider the importance of both privacy and at the same time collaboration:
“There are few silver bullets in smart home tech, and robust third-party support often leaves room for uncertainty, which in Josh’s case can mean the difference between lights turning on or staying off. Capecelatro says ensuring smooth compatibility with supported devices has been a pretty big focus for their engineering team.”
This seems a hard balance to strike.
It is interesting to keep an eye on the products that are emerging on the smart speaker market.
This is #500daysofAI and you are reading article 332. I am writing one new article about or related to artificial intelligence every day for 500 days. My focus for day 300–400 is about AI, hardware and the climate crisis.
