The Elements of Voice First Style

Chapter 20. Voice First Notifications

When we think of a human assistant, we usually think of someone who is at our beck and call, available to help us with our requests, and who tries their best to fulfill such requests. But a good assistant does not just wait for our request and then react. A good assistant is proactive and takes initiative, and because they are familiar with our schedules, our preferences, goals, and values, they can often anticipate not only what we may want to do, but also when and how we want to do it. And if they are really good at what they do, they also know what we want to avoid doing and why.

For example, a conscientious human assistant will make sure we receive information that comes to their attention and they feel we may need to be aware of. But a great assistant will also know which information is urgent and needs to be brought to our attention immediately, which information can wait until the next time they interact with us, which information can wait just for the right time, and which information not to bother us with.

If we want to build a voicebot that acts similarly—for instance, a voicebot that monitors our email, inbound SMS (short message service) texts, instant message chats, and calendar, to enable us to focus on our work (say, we have carved out two hours to focus on writing a book), but at the same time not miss important things (for instance, meetings, urgent email from clients, a chat message from an employee who is blocked by you)—we ...