AI voice recognition startup eyes Western markets
Posicube CEO Oh Sung-jo plans to expand the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) powered voice recognition service into Western markets in 2021, in an ambitious bid to globalize its platforms and prove the firm’s technological expertise.
Oh established the Seoul-based startup in 2017 with the aim of providing a specialized voice recognition service, as most AI platforms pursuing versatility were not accurate enough to satisfy customers.
The company offers two services: Robi Reception was developed to replace repetitive tasks from call centers, and Robi Store is used mostly in restaurants and beauty stores to help customers make a reservation.
Oh, 48, worked at Samsung Electronics before founding the startup with a group of his co-workers. He decided to start the business with the hope of providing more accurate and practical AI-driven voice recognition services for customers.
“We saw a 10-fold growth in our 2019 sales from the previous year, and expect the figure to grow by 200 percent on average for the next five years,” Oh said in an interview Thursday.
Posicube started with only four co-workers, but the company plans to recruit 30 AI specialists by the end of this year to expand its business to a global scale.
“After expanding our presence in Korea, we are going to launch English-language voice recognition services in 2021 for our global expansion,” Oh said.
He pointed out that there are no technological hurdles when offering voice AI services in different languages.
“We focus our business on developing high-quality voice AI services to be used for specific purposes,” he said. “When the number of categories increases, customers will be able to enjoy a wide range of voice AI services in their daily lives.”
This is because it is tough for a single big platform to offer accurate services that can satisfy general needs from customers in the near future, he said.
“If more services similar to ours are rolled out on the market for certain stores, companies or organizations, customers will be able to communicate with voice AI systems every day within two to three years,” he said.
Posicube has a technological edge in its quick response speed and accurate voice recognition, according to Oh.
“Posicube’s voice AI platforms can respond in less than a second by using our data-processing technologies,” he said. “On top of that, our services can understand customers’ voices more accurately, as we have placed a special emphasis on making our platforms understand technical terms and even proper nouns.”