Interacting with computers using natural language has become the norm in the past couple of years thanks to the efforts of tech stalwarts like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Comcast has simplified search, discovery and control with its Xfinity Remote with voice control, which allows one to interact with television via voice. The question is how can smaller operators compete with these tech giants by offering similar conversational voice interfaces?

Enter MindMeld, which just announced their MindMeld for TV product, which integrates their artificial intelligence engine with TV metadata libraries, such as Gracenote, includes built-in language models to allow viewers to interact with smart home and IoT devices and has client SDKs to support a variety of set-tops and smart TVs.

MindMeld’s back-end with its conversational capabilities can be applied for more than TV and another obvious application for its use is an extremely responsive customer service front-end, as MindMeld CMO Sam Vasisht alludes to in the above interview filmed at International CES 2016.  The most impressive thing is the relatively short timeframe – measured in months – that it takes to customize the MindMeld backend for specific applications. With 20% of searches reportedly via voice, it is clear that humans are increasingly expecting to interact with computers like they would another human.