Orange co-innovates with its trusted partners to create unprecedented experiences and an open ecosystem.
In the spring of 2019, Djingo, a virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence, will be marketed in France in the form of the Djingo speaker – a connected speaker that enables customers to access core Orange services by voice. Djingo will then be launched in all new UHD TV decoders, thanks to its remote control equipped with a microphone, and will eventually be available through a smartphone app. Djingo will allow its users to control Orange TV using their voice, listen to music with Deezer, make telephone calls through the speaker, access practical services and much more.
European AI for the general public
“With its twin Halo Magenta for Deutsche Telekom, Djingo is a major European industrial project in the field of AI intended for the general public. It is therefore attracting interest from a lot of players on the continent”, Mathieu Ducrot, Head of Product, Djingo Anticipation & Partnerships, explains enthusiastically.
In Barcelona, Orange will demonstrate some unique experiences that its virtual assistant offers and also outline the open nature of the ecosystem that respects personal data. From Deezer to OUI.sncf, from Radio France to FoodTech players, and even including RATP, many partners are already integrated into the Djingo ecosystem. The Mobile World Congress is therefore the perfect opportunity, according to Mathieu Ducrot, “to raise an even greater awareness of Djingo among players with whom we could create new experiences that cannot be rivalled elsewhere”.
An integration model adapted to each partner
There are three ways that our partners can be integrated into Djingo:
- Bot Party: Orange’s “plug-and-play” solution, which is compatible with a wide range of bot creation tools. With Bot Party, partners that already have a bot under their own brand can connect it to the Djingo ecosystem with just a few clicks. According to Mathieu Ducrot, “Thanks to Bot Party, it only took a few seconds to connect the OUI.sncf bot. This means we can now work on a more advanced integration with unprecedented functions”. Visitors can find out how users of the OUI.sncf bot are able to search for their train tickets using their voice via the Djingo speaker.
- Open API: Orange also offers its partners the option of becoming integrated into existing Djingo services through open APIs. In Barcelona, the demonstration will cover the Djingo “shopping list”, a feature that is now open to all mass retail players. A user can add products using their voice via the Djingo speaker. These are then automatically added to the shopping basket of their preferred distributor. Then all they need to do is finalise their purchase via the distributor’s app to place the order, which can be delivered to their home or collected.
- Co-design: this integration model brings together Orange designers and those of a partner with the aim of creating a unique experience in a specialised field. The demonstration will cover the partnership formed between Orange and a key FoodTech player, which offers a multi-interface voice-controlled recipe experience. This service enables a user to ask Djingo to suggest a recipe based on a product of their choice. Djingo connects to the partner’s service to help them make the recipe step by step. As Mathieu Ducrot explains, “the result is a very fluid experience that is achieved thanks to recipes specifically designed for voice mode – you will not find an experience elsewhere that is as successful as that of Djingo”.
Orange and Amazon – a unique experience
In order to offer a wide choice to their customers, Orange has also partnered up with Amazon. The Djingo speaker is even more intelligent and offers more services with Amazon Alexa. Indeed, Orange shares the same vision as Amazon of artificial intelligence systems complementing each other to offer the customer the best possible experience. Integrating Alexa with the Djingo speaker is an example of this. But this is just the beginning: Orange and Amazon are working on the joint integration of their assistants in their future products.
