NLP: Unlock the Hidden Business Value in Voice Communications

Today organizations capture an enormous amount of information in spoken conversations, from routine customer service calls to sophisticated claims processing interactions in finance and healthcare. But most of this information remains hidden and unused due to the difficulty of turning these conversations into meaningful data that can be effectively analyzed through Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Simply applying speech recognition software to voice conversations often results in unreliable data. State-of-the-art speech recognition systems still have trouble distinguishing between homophones (words with the same pronunciation, but different meanings), as well as the difference between proper names (i.e. people, products) and separate words. In addition, there is also the challenge of identifying domain-specific words accurately. Thus, in most cases, using speech recognition software alone doesn’t produce accurate enough data for reliable NLP.

Data Fabrics and Knowledge Graphs — A Symbiotic Relationship

The data fabric notion is gaining credence throughout the analyst community, in much the same way knowledge graphs have done so for years. Both technologies link all relevant data for a specific business purpose, which is why the most successful companies in the world employ them.

Amazon’s knowledge graph retains metadata about its vast product array; Google’s captures data about an exhaustive list of web entities of interest. Lesser-known organizations regularly deploy these mechanisms for everything from comprehensive customer views to manufacturing processes.