This AI Software Harnesses The Power Of Your Voice

Cogito Corporation is a fast-growing company in Boston, and it’s not hard to understand why.

Cogito’s technology centers around an artificial intelligence software that analyzes voice inflection and seeks to make a link between those tiny changes and potential social cues. The software is largely used by call center agents, coaching them to facilitate positive customer interactions and build trust. Also, health care professionals are finding the technology particularly useful in monitoring patients.

"We focus on using artificial intelligence to improve people’s lives," said Dr. Skyler Place, the chief behavioral science officer at Cogito.

Cogito is the brainchild of MIT professor Alex "Sandy" Pentland, who has been studying the ability of machines to interpret social signals in our communications for about 20 years. In 2007, Pentland teamed up with Josh to launch Cogito; and, today the company is deployed in a number of enterprises, including Humana, Zurich, and CareFirst.

"The fascinating part is that if you can build trust early, the customer ends up trusting and believing what you’re saying. So, then you have fewer follow-up questions and the overall call is shorter, while the customer had a better experience," said Place.

Cogito is also targeting health care with its app – Cogito Companion.

Using the same algorithm as the customer service product, the app monitors a patient’s phone for both active and passive behavior signals. That means the app can tell if a patient hasn’t left his home for several days or indicate if the patient hasn’t texted or spoken on the phone. Cogito and teamed up with several health care systems. The companies have found the app particularly helpful for veterans.

"There’s a lot of opportunity to bring this to market to a much larger audience. Right now, we are working with veterans in Colorado, and we would love to expand that nationally," said Place. "And, as we move further into the enterprise, we have more opportunities to really integrate into the customer experience approach and to take advantage of some of the other signals we get on phone calls to better drive the performance, behavior and conversations."

Cogito partners with Cisco, Salesforce and Avaya, among others. Cogito expects opportunities to expand for those in the channel as the company continues to grow.