Latest / The Retail Podcast / Empowering Frontline Workers: How Jabra and AI Transform Retail Communication

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Empowering Frontline Workers: How Jabra and AI Transform Retail Communication · The Retail Podcast

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  I think the really interesting trend moving forward though is
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  the proliferation of AI agents and and we think that we can act
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  as a critical gateway to AI agents moving forward.
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  Hello and welcome to the Retail Podcast.
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  Now today we're going to go into an area that I love and have had
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  lots of experience with. And I'm really curious to to
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  dive directly into Andrew Doyle, who's VP of frontline of Jabra
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  to talk about empowering, which I'm pretty sure frontline
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  workers as he's the VP for frontline workers at Jabra.
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  And so some of you may or may not know Jabra.
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  So Andrew, why don't you set the scene for us?
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  You know who is Jabra and then bring it down to frontline
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  workers? What are you guys doing in this
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  space? Thanks, Alex.
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  Well, firstly, thanks for giving us the opportunity, Sir, to join
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  you on the podcast. A little bit of background to
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  Jabra. So actually Jabra's part of a
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  Danish group called GNGN, still Noor actually 156 years old.
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  That's what that matters. And a little anecdote.
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  GN was the first company to create telegraphic communication
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  between China and the rest of the world.
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  So a little anecdote for you. And we like to think that we're
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  still in the world of communicating and connecting
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  people. Even now.
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  We have 3 divisions. We have our hearing division.
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  So one of the world leaders in, in, in hearing aids.
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  We have the cool part of our company, which is the gaming
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  division. So for the gamers out there, we
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  we have a brand called Steel Series, which again one of the
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  world leaders in in gaming gear. So everything from headsets to
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  keyboards to mice. And then we have the enterprise
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  division, which is the business that frontline resides.
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  And I think probably a lot of your listeners will be aware of
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  Jabra through products, speaker phones, headsets, even video
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  collaboration products that were particularly targeted with, with
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  the desk based or the knowledge worker.
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  So that's kind of our our pedigree.
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  And you can probably sort of perceive the synergies that
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  exist across the group in terms of our technology capabilities,
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  particularly around audio and IT.
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  You know, we've, we're particularly intrigued in this
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  sort of frontline worker space. We, we made the strategic
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  decision to, to invest in what we think is a great market
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  opportunity of frontline workers and particularly retail because
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  we think we can add some value in that space.
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  And it's, it's really around the provision of, you know, superior
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  audio technology towards the front line and towards retail
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  workers. And that is sort of to improve
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  collaboration through what we think of as human to human
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  communication, but also human to machine communication,
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  particularly the proliferation of AI.
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  So kind of what brings us into the space.
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  Yeah. And we we look forward to trying
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  to build sort of our business and build improved solutions in
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  the forthcoming years. I sort of get the play that
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  you're making in terms of your, everyone who works in enterprise
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  is aware of the brand, they've seen the headsets, they've had
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  some working relationship with you.
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  If if you've worked, as you said, you're a knowledge worker
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  or, or been in the enterprise environment, what, what, what
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  makes you feel or what was the research or what was the element
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  that made you guys feel that there was, this is a great time
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  to go into a market that has existed for a long time.
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  So it's a, it's a tough move, I think, but I'm curious about
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  those elements. You will already know, but what
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  well, we're really good in this area.
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  We're really good in this and that's what we see is needed.
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  I'm curious what what those areas?
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  Well, I think we're seeing this sort of, I mean, you know,
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  retail in particular is constantly looking to drive
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  productivity, customer service engagement of of associates.
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  And we're starting to see I think the recognition that, you
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  know, improving communication through.
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  So what we hear this phrase digitalisation at the front line
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  and sort of phrase, I think that's been been used for a
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  while. What we're seeing is sort of the
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  sort of what we regard as key partners of ours like sort of
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  Microsoft Zebra Technologies and now building really strong
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  digital capabilities in their software platforms for two way
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  communication push to talk applications such as work cloud
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  sync teams, walkie-talkie. We're seeing those that
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  proliferation of those devices of those sort of software
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  application. And what we think is that
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  actually there is a real value add that we can bring from
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  superior audio and pods essentially.
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  And yeah, we think that's a sort of a missing component today,
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  the quality of audio as we think ultimately you know those if you
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  can enhance communication, you can increase productivity,
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  accurate two way communication, customer service, giving better
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  information directly to your associate enables them to be
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  more engaging with customers. And of course that in itself
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  provides better engagement for the for the worker.
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  I think the really interesting trend moving forward though is a
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  proliferation of AI agents and and we think that we can act as
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  a critical gateway to AI agents moving forward.
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  In what way? What?
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  Unpack that for me What? What you mean by that?
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  Yeah, I mean, so if we think about the fact that voice is the
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  most natural way for us to communicate and it seems to be
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  now a general building consensus, the voice will be the
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  interface to AI agents as there was a clear productivity game.
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  So I was in preparation today. I was, I was looking at sort of
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  some data points and they consider that that was really
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  interesting. The human brain, we can process
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  around 500 to 600 words per minute in thought.
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  And we when we speak, we can essentially speak at a speed
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  around 200 to 300 words per minute.
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  But once we tie, that drops to between 40 and 70.
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  So essentially we speak four times faster than we tie.
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  It's even higher actually if you compare it to typing with sort
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  of a small handheld device. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  So I'm fairly certain that we're fairly certain the voice is
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  going to be the interface to AI, to voice driven applications and
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  particularly AI agents. So we think voice is going to be
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  critical. Why do, let's say headsets
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  matter? You think about sort of really
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  fundamentally what the headsets do.
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  They do two things. They allow you to operate heads
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  up and hands free. That's a term we use a lot and
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  typically people working on the front line are multitasking by
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  nature. They're having to communicate
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  while undertaking another task. So the ability to operate, if
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  you have to pull out a handheld device to interact, to update
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  information, actually quite cumbersome.
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  It slows down productivity. So that's one big advantage.
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  Headset then increasingly important is, is audio
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  intelligence, so the importance of obviously being able to hear
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  information accurately. So I use the example of an AI
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  agent understanding what the AI agent's telling you, but really
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  critically able to update the AI agent accurately.
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  So the audio intelligibility headsets improve that
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  significantly then using sort of, yeah, let's say a detached
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  speaker. So that's where we think we play
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  a role. And you know, as organisations
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  are considering the deployment of AII, think the consideration
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  of hardware, specifically the audio device, is actually going
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  to become quite important. I got you.
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  So again, please correct me if I'm wrong.
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  So you're ultimately complementing the device the
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  whoever the the retailer is using, whatever device they're
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  using that has some form of audio capability.
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  That's that's where where you guys are playing, right?
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  Exactly so we. The handheld device as well or
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  or anything like like Zebra? No, I mean it's anything.
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  No, exactly. So we connect to the Zebra
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  device and if that was running an application that could be a
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  voice based, a voice enabled application or game.
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  Yeah, they all, they all. Have right, all of them have a
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  some form of push the. Tool for.
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  Voice capability now. Exactly.
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  So you're enhancing that that capability basically through the
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  parameters of being heads up and hands free.
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  Then increasingly important this this principle of audio
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  intelligibility. I mean we have sort of a data
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  point around transcription. So of course how you do this
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  transcript audio through to text.
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  If you take a an enterprise grade products such as Jabras,
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  we will achieve the sort of transcription accuracy of around
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  96%, something like really, yeah, which is compared to let's
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  say a standard consumer grade headset that will be as low as
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  64% in the world where you, you know, you are actually updating
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  key data for maybe to drive workflows actually that that
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  level of inaccuracy becomes comes, you know, quite
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  significantly problematic. So thinkers, organisations are
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  thinking forward towards sort of again using voice LED
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  applications. Everybody needs to think about
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  the hardware components. So yes, the clarity and the
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  accuracy is what I'm hearing, right.
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  That's really down to the, the quality of that mic picking up
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  is, is the difference between with you having to repeat lost
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  productivity in lost communication, How how sorry, go
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  on. No.
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  I was going to say these as we think about the microphone
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  technology, you know, typically that microphone technology needs
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  to work in noisy environments. Yeah.
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  Yeah. So you think some sort of noise
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  cancelling or? Yeah.
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  Exactly. But is that what we're talking?
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  I mean, like, are your devices noise cancel?
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  I'm giving them a bit of a geek and nerd.
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  I'm I'm curious, like, are you cancelling noise?
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  Are you doing that sort of stuff?
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  What's? What's going on?
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  So that's where sort of the secret sauce is, if you like, is
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  a, is a business. We, we, I think it's consumers,
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  we tend to think of noise cancelling from the point of
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  receive. So typically a lot of us will
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  have, you know, will listen to music using noise cancelling on
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  a plane and you know, you hit that button and it's quite
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  transformational, that experience.
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  Yeah, yeah. But essentially we, we, we do
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  that so we, we can reduce the noise for you as a listener.
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  But I think really importantly, we through noise cancelling
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  microphone technology and digital algorithms and we're
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  able to essentially create the same effect.
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  But when you are transmitting, so essentially we are able to
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  cancel that, that, that bubble of noise around the microphone.
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  So the, everything that's transmitted is your voice.
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  Again, that's where the you know, that's where the the smart
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  technology comes in. You don't do one for podcasters
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  any amount of conferences I go to and then we have to spend so
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  much time digitally deleting all the background noise.
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  And I've, and it's interesting because a lot of the consumables
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  for, for consumers microphones are now coming with sort of some
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  form of noise cancelling. And, and I think what that's
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  really good because if you're getting that consumer grade,
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  then your business is still using archaic whatever methods
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  for, for, for it's, you know, it's I, I can imagine because
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  I've had those things in my ear on a shift and they are really
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  problematic and they do 'cause headaches and they have all of
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  these other things as they it. Opens up a whole world really I
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  think I mean this is sort of what makes again has come back
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  to why we think we have an interesting the original
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  question. Why do you think we have a a
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  sort of a business opportunity here?
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  I think it's because once you, if you believe I met my first
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  couple of weeks in this role, I met UK retailer and they're on a
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  journey of thinking about how they can provide AI agents for
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  for employee guidance, how to tools super great.
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  They're a really brilliant proof of concept that they're running.
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  You know, the, the, the, the IT lead was of the opinion.
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  If I don't get the device right, the headset doesn't work.
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  This falls over. It's all that heavy lifting in
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  the back end actually almost hinges on how good the quality
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  endpoint devices and you know they see that from audio
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  intelligibility. You know the product, you know
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  the audio transmission needs to be good enough, but also you
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  think about these are personal devices.
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  We I think we will be asking a lot of retail associates to wear
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  comfort becomes important. And is it available in the
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  market right now or are you how, where are you in your
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  development? Yeah.
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  So we've, we've, we've had a product to the market for for a
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  few years, but we, we which was is a, a more classic Bluetooth
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  product Perform 45. And now we've just launched a
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  new product called the Perform 75.
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  I've got 1 here in front of me. The the, the.
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  Yes it. Is the one the mic?
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  OK, got you. So this one is a mic and then if
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  you for comparison, then you have I'm concerned the Bluetooth
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  will kick in. But essentially this is them
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  more classic Bluetooth style device.
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  And I think you know what we some of the attributes that I
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  think are important and all our devices with the fall is the
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  interoperability. So all of our products we build,
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  we work with Microsoft Zebra seller, all the key brush to
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  talk vendors. We ensure that our products
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  integrate seamlessly. So there's this notion that, you
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  know, this would fall down straight away if yes, I've got a
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  handset, but I need to take, need to take the handheld out of
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  my pocket every time I take a call, yes, I take a call needs
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  to work, needs to be fully in top.
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  So, so yeah, that's, that's key. So working closely with the
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  partners around that into interoperability.
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  So the two products are out. Yeah.
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  And we're pretty excited about what, you know, the, the, the
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  early response has been really positive so far.
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  And again, final technical geek question, but what's the, what's
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  the battery life? These are the important
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  questions. This is not normal, but you
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  know, I'm thinking if I'm going to deploy this, what was the
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  battery life on these things? I think it's interesting with
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  this product. So this is the perform 75.
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  So this is a a larger this, this product's been designed to work
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  across all the way from sort of the back of store in sort of
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  warehouse environment or stores environment all the way to the
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  front of the house. To answer your question
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  specifically, we'll achieve 30 hours of battery life with this.
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  So this will easily do multiple shift.
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  But we've done that. I don't know, sort of yeah, I
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  don't know how easy this works on the podcast, but so yeah,
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  yeah, it got you, you know, you essentially once we've done with
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  this designs a few things that are unique.
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  So we created the modular product.
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  So we actually have you can essentially deploy the headband
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  to all of your social, the mic. That's crazy.
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  Exactly. And then the the, the smarts of
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  the product, you would just deploy what was needed to cover
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  a full shift. And then we essentially have
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  created what we call a hot swappable battery, which means
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  you can charge in between shifts and then the associate would
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  arrive in the morning, grab their personal headband wheels,
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  have a neck bands and alternative wearing style.
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  It would simply grab one of these and one of these from the
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  charging Bay since they connect that and then they're up and
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  running. And then with the ease of sort
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  of connectivity, so simple tap to pair functionality on
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  Bluetooth essentially, then you have them up and running really
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  quickly. And that's been sort of key for
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  us. So we've thought about shift
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  work, we've thought about shared device, we've thought about
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  power management and we've thought about ease of use from
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  trying to build this. And you know, you come back to
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  the microphone, yes, it is a long microphone.
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  And I think you know, we shy away from that as consumers to
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  an extent. This comes back to to the audio
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  intelligibility. Yeah.
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  You want it. Just me if you want some people
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  to hear you or not, Yeah. Well, this will, this will
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  create 99% noise cancellation. So there's a huge specific fit
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  in terms of being able to be heard.
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  And again, that's important. If I'm speaking, you and I are
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  speaking now it's equally important if you're then, you
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  know, working towards a voice activated application where the
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  accuracy of what you're saying becomes really important, that
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  there's a dangerous, you set up a workflow which is wrong.
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  So that becomes really important.
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  So yes, that's what that's kind of I, I sort of went a bit
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  further than your question, but you're sending it.
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  Yeah. As I said, it's an area that
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  I've worked in for a long time. So I'm, I personally, I'm
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  curious about what, what the future of this area looks like.
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  So, but with that, I'm going to be respectful to your time and
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  say thank you very much. It's been great.
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  If people want to find out more information about yourself and
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  the the stuff that you've been showing us, where, where, where
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  should they go? If they go to jabra.com and the
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  perform sub page within jabra.com, you'll see all about
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  our products and I think we have links to to the team to connect.
• 16:38
  Wonderful. Andrew, thank you so much.
• 16:41
  Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it.