The Top 44 Leaders In Voice 2019

Introducing Voicebot’s Leaders in Voice 2019

Voice assistants are a phenomenon. They have rapidly become cultural icons and spread from smartphones to smart speakers, back again and to many other device surfaces. They represent both a “newish” technology popular with consumers and a new computing platform following in the footsteps of the web and mobile.

There is often a focus on the technology breakthroughs that brought us to the precipice of the voice assistant era. Neural networks, far-field voice recognition, semantic parsing, speech synthesis, and many other innovations are critical elements of voice assistant performance today. However, behind these innovations that brought us to this point and leading us into the next phase of adoption are people that are combining insight, passion, and sometimes genius. The Voicebot team thought it was about time we recognize some of those people at the vanguard of the voice assistant era.

Meet the 2019 Leaders in Voice

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The Leaders Come from Big Companies and Startups

The Top 44 Leaders in Voice are segmented into four categories, each with eleven people. Topping the list in the visionaries category are Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Adam Cheyer from Samsung and Viv Labs. Designers and products leaders include Google’s Cathy Pearl and Mark Webster from Adobe. The Technologists category includes another Googler, Brad Abrams, along with John Giannadrea from Apple and Rohit Prasad from Amazon. Then there are the Influencers that are shaping the way consumers and corporate executives think about voice technology today such as Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media, Dave Isbitski from Amazon, and Noelle LaChartie from Microsoft. However, these lists are not limited to executives at big companies. Many have an outsized influence on the market today because of the reach and impact of their companies, but also included are startup founders from Audioburst, Audio Analytic, Clinc, Orbita, Pretzel Labs, and VocaliD among others.

We recognize that any list you create will be accompanied by some controversy and disagreement. Typically, those concerns stem from valid arguments that certain people should have made the list. Of course, with a fixed number, there is always some deserving person left out. We recognize that many people have made a big contribution that didn’t make the list. Our panel of six judges weighed many factors in compiling the list and some were advocating for professionals that just missed the cut. Let the debate begin.

Methodology

We arrived at our initial list of candidates using a number of methods. First, we included in a survey of voice professionals a question about who they thought were leaders in the industry. We then added suggestions from our panel of judges and individuals that had received coverage in past Voicebot news stories. For at least one category we also analyzed social media activity. The judges then scored each individual based on a number of factors and they were segmented into our leadership categories. No judge or person working for Voicebot were eligible for consideration. There were some close calls, ties in scoring, and other factors that needed to be weighed to arrive at our final list. The entire process was executed with care and the goal of providing a compelling representation of industry leadership.

Meet the Judges

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