BBC Head of Voice and AI Andy Webb Discusses the Custom Voice Assistant Beeb - Voicebot Podcast Ep 153

Andy Webb is head of product for voice and AI at BBC Worldwide as
VP of Product Strategy. BBC has been a pioneer in supporting
consumer assistants globally such as Amazon's Alexa and Google
Assistant. It is prominent in the UK but also provides skills and
Actions in many other countries as well. It is also one of the
most respected news organizations worldwide so Amazon and Google
are incentivized to make sure BBC is available through there
assistants. 


 


Last August, BBC announced it would create a new voice assistant
of its own called Beeb. The organization is not abandoning Alexa
or Google Assistant. Instead, Webb tells me that they are
supplementing their work on these platforms. Beeb is more than an
assistant. It's BBC's own internal conversational engine that can
enable custom assistants deployed through desktop and mobile apps
as well as support the many voice assistants that want access to
BBC content. 


 


Media is one of the most popular and most important segments for
voice assistants today. BBC is developing the Beeb to offer
richer functionality than you could ever provide on the
general-purpose consumer assistant platforms because of the
limitations they impose on third-parties. 


 


Andy Webb joined BBC in 2106 and has been head of the voice and
AI group since it was formed in 2017. Before his time at BBC,
Webb was EMEA regional manager for Imagine Communications, head
of product management for digital platforms at Arqiva and Product
Development lead at Sky among other roles.