Spain's leading telco has taken the wraps off a new artificial intelligence system that it will launch in key markets over the next 12 months.

Iain Morris, International Editor

February 26, 2017

4 Min Read
Telefónica's Answer to Apple's Siri: Aura

BARCELONA -- Mobile World Congress 2017 -- Telefónica has taken a bold leap into the age of artificial intelligence with its launch today of a new digital assistant called Aura, which appears to be the product of a two-year research initiative at the Spanish telco that has been a closely guarded secret.

Unveiled in Barcelona on the cusp of this year's Mobile World Congress, Aura sounds and works much like Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s Siri or Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN)'s Alexa, allowing customers to check on details of their Telefónica service -- and ask for problems to be resolved or new features to be provided -- using a voice interface on a mobile device.

Judging by the demonstration at Telefónica's offices in Barcelona, Aura works at least as effectively as the digital assistants developed by the web giants but differs in one important respect: It stores and can act upon all of the information about a particular user that is relevant to his or her relationship with the operator.

Figure 1: The Sky's the Limit Telefonica's state-of-the-art office building in the Catalan capital of Barcelona. Telefónica's state-of-the-art office building in the Catalan capital of Barcelona.

In fact, Telefónica balks at the "digital assistant" label, preferring to think of Aura as a "cognitive intelligence" system than a neat bit of voice-recognition software.

The Spanish incumbent says the service comes with three overarching benefits for users: first, giving them a measure of control through a natural language interface; second, offering full "transparency" about their dealings with Telefónica; and third, allowing customers to discover new service possibilities.

CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete described Aura as a "fourth platform" that would sit on top of the physical networks, IT systems and digital services that make up the other three.

It appears to have been developed in close cooperation with software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), which has recently been ramping up its investments in the field of artificial intelligence.

Speaking at Telefónica's press event, Peggy Johnson, the vice president of business development for Microsoft, said that a number of recent technology breakthroughs had been fed into the Aura project.

For one thing, Microsoft now claims that its artificial intelligence systems can recognize speech as well as a human -- with a data error rate of less than 6% -- and that image recognition capabilities have an error rate of less than 3%.

"Conversation as a platform and natural language interaction with computers -- that is a paradigm shift on a par with the mouse and touchscreen and web browser, and core to this is some of the technology shown with Aura," said Johnson.

For all the latest news from the wireless networking and services sector, check out our dedicated mobile content channel here on Light Reading.

Besides teaming up with Microsoft, Telefónica has also announced Aura partnerships with other high-profile technology companies, including Facebook .

The social networking giant says it has improved the effectiveness of its recently launched safety check service -- which allows Facebook users to flag their safety in a terrorist or environmental crisis -- through a tie-up with Telefónica.

With Aura, Facebook can improve the accuracy of notifications by requesting location-based data from participating customers.

Telefónica Chief Data Officer Chema Alonso says Aura will be rolled out in the next 12 months in major markets including Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Spain and the UK.

What remains unclear is whether Aura will constitute a new revenue-growth opportunity for the telco. Telefónica had nothing to say about the pricing of the service but seems likely to include it with tariffs for no additional charge -- judging by the way other digital assistants have been offered.

There might also be doubts about the consumer appetite for yet another digital assistant. Just as Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has become the go-to choice for most search-engine users, those taking advantage of voice-controlled digital assistants seem likely to be drawn to just one or two services in the long run.

Telefónica is obviously trying to avoid any comparisons with Siri and Alexa, presenting Aura as an "open ecosystem" that is constantly on the lookout for new over-the-top partners. Indeed, Aura has already been engineered to work in conjunction with Alexa, meaning Alexa users can make requests that draw on the intelligence within Aura.

The Aura technology might also lead to some cost and efficiency benefits for Telefónica, which says about 45% of the requests that come through to its call centers are about bill clarification and the availability of certain TV services.

"Aura can work out if you have the right package to watch a particular program," explains Alonso.

Telefónica did not say how much investment had gone into Aura but did reveal that it has spent a total of €48 billion ($51 billion) on networks, IT systems and digital service development during the past five years.

— Iain Morris, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, News Editor, Light Reading

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About the Author(s)

Iain Morris

International Editor, Light Reading

Iain Morris joined Light Reading as News Editor at the start of 2015 -- and we mean, right at the start. His friends and family were still singing Auld Lang Syne as Iain started sourcing New Year's Eve UK mobile network congestion statistics. Prior to boosting Light Reading's UK-based editorial team numbers (he is based in London, south of the river), Iain was a successful freelance writer and editor who had been covering the telecoms sector for the past 15 years. His work has appeared in publications including The Economist (classy!) and The Observer, besides a variety of trade and business journals. He was previously the lead telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, and before that worked as a features editor at Telecommunications magazine. Iain started out in telecoms as an editor at consulting and market-research company Analysys (now Analysys Mason).

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