Bauer Media, the market leader in commercial radio, will start offering AI-enriched, real-time and local traffic announcements to radio listeners together with state-owned traffic management company Fintraffic. This is a socially significant project the kind of which has not previously been implemented in Finland.
Above all, the purpose of the service is to improve road safety by creating a better and preventive traffic information service for listeners of Bauer Media radio channels. The service will be first introduced in radio station Iskelmä’s broadcast range.
The new service will allow Bauer Media to strengthen its role as a trendsetter in audio business, an enthusiastic pioneer and a curious experimenter which, with the help of its top-level partners, is unafraid to start developing new ideas and innovations and to experiment them in practice, which in turn will benefit the entire sector.
"The use of artificial intelligence has come to stay in the radio business. The media revolution obliges us, but at the same time also gives us the opportunity to implement these revolutionary reforms that will serve the whole of Finland. This world-class news will certainly not be the last of its kind, as my desk is stacked with more inspiring opportunities for using artificial intelligence in the future as well!" says Sini Kervinen, Head of Innovation responsible for the Bauer Media project.
Bauer Media has collaborated with Fintraffic for years on issues such as the publication of the national traffic bulletins on Radio Nova. The innovation now being introduced will also enable round-the-clock and local traffic bulletins. In this way, listeners will be informed immediately in the specific location where traffic is congested or where there’s been an accident. The service will benefit in particular the transport sector, which is mainly active at night.
"Our task is to produce up-to-date traffic information every hour of the day in order to provide traffic users with the most up-to-date and comprehensive situational picture possible. When people in traffic know what is happening ahead of them, anticipation becomes easier and safety improves. Together with our partners, we are constantly looking for new ways to utilise traffic information so that the information can reach end users in the right places at the right time. At the same time, we want to use the information we produce to help our partners develop their own business. It has been great to work with Bauer Media in building a concept that is unique even by global standards, in which traffic information ends up in radio waves automated and targeted to listeners," says Janne Lautanala, Chief Ecosystem and Technology Officer at Fintraffic.
There are two types of traffic bulletins implemented by artificial intelligence, of which basic traffic bulletins are read by masculine AI-generated voice, A.I.mo. Weather-hazard bulletins, on the other hand, are read by feminine AI-generated voice, A.I.no.
A new and revolutionary way of using AI in traffic bulletins is unprecedented both historically and technologically, and one example of the benefits that AI can bring in the audio market today. The technology for this service has been made possible by Finnish software company Isoft.ai, which has specialised in AI solutions and products since 2015.
