Voysis gained recognition for its ability to create synthetic voices that sound more human than either Google's DeepMind team or Facebook.
Its commerce specialisation will let e-commerce companies use its Voysis-powered voice to enable shoppers to search and buy products using their voices.
"With recent advancements in voice technology, we’re now at a place to deliver these experiences at scale," Dr Peter Cahill, founder and chief executive of Voysis said. "Voysis Commerce fills an important void in the market for brands and retailers, We’re already working with some of the best known retailers to launch voice commerce imminently, helping them take back their customer relationships from companies like Amazon. "
The reality is few retailers want to allow Amazon to own their own customer data and relationships, despite Alexa's popularity, Cahill added. "It’s the equivalent of letting the wolf into the pen. We not only have a better, more accurate, contextualised solution, but one that appeals to brands."
The launch comes at the end of a busy 2017 for the start-up. At the start of the year, it announced an $8m (£6m) financing round led by US venture capital firm Polaris Partners. Shortly afterwards, Ian Hodson, former head of Google's text-to-speech program, joined the company.
Voysis has also launched a new office in Edinburgh, Scotland to add to their office in Boston and headquarters in Dublin.
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