At Google Cloud, we’re committed to making artificial intelligence (AI) accessible to everyone and easier to harness for new use cases.  That’s why we’re excited to announce the general availability of our intuitive, new visual user interface for Google Cloud’s Speech-to-Text (STT) API, right in Google Cloud Console, which makes the API much simpler and easier for developers to use.  

The STT API lets developers convert speech into text by leveraging Google’s years of research in automatic speech recognition and transcription technology. As advancements in AI continue to bring speech to new interfaces and devices, the STT API helps developers add speech functionality to their applications in order to better meet consumer demands. 

The STT API covers a wide variety of use cases, from dictation and short commands, to captioning and subtitles. Getting the most of STT, however, can be a complicated process. To achieve the highest accuracy on any AI use case requires careful testing and tuning. 

Previously, developers building on the STT API had to do this work manually by carefully experimenting with our API. Just to get started, developers needed familiarity with GCP integration concepts and had to either build their own tools or manage various scripts and API calls to fully understand the API documentation.  These actions required cumbersome and time-consuming effort and made measuring, customizing, and improving models even more difficult.  

Today’s announcement significantly simplifies the process, facilitating iteration and integration of models into developers’ applications by letting developers perform every API function from within the Google Cloud Console.  These tools will make it easier for developers to integrate the STT API with their products or services. This update also gives developers the ability to manage and quickly iterate on their STT model customizations with Model Adaptation.

Model Adaptation allows developers to customize STT specifically for their domains or use cases. Developers can maintain lists of words and weights that will be applied to either every request or just single requests, depending on their needs. Model adaptations are reusable and composable, so once developers have seen good results in the STT Cloud Console, they can deploy to their entire solution. 

The Speech-to-Text Cloud Console and Model Adaptation API is available now in all Google Cloud regions and languages and is accessible to all GCP users with no additional cost to that of the underlying API usage. The STT API supports over 70 languages in 120 different local variants. If you’re a developer looking for an easy to use, easy to integrate, and high-quality STT experience, sign up for our free trial and try our new interface on your own datasets today!

Founded in 1930 and headquartered in Jordan, Arab Bank is one of the oldest banks in the Middle East. Operating out of 28 countries, we’ve earned our customers’ trust with a prudent approach to operations and respect for the cultures and customs in the region. 

With a few exceptions where cloud providers have hosted their datacenter in a Middle Eastern or North African country, the banking sector, in general, in the region has been slow to adopt cloud technology for a number of reasons, including concern about data security, maturity and security controls of cloud services (PaaS and SaaS), and regulations in place. But on the other hand, we saw the opportunity to accelerate our development and testing using the cloud, as well as to partner with the fintech community and digital service providers to integrate their solution in the banking ecosystem. We needed more flexibility to connect with the outside world, and a more open architecture to help us drive our internal innovation at a faster rate with the help of the fintech industry. By collaborating with Google Cloud, we reached those goals and accelerated app development and testing through products like Apigee and Anthos. We’re now offering innovative apps and services to our customers and employees that leverage new technological capabilities to give more agility and flexibility, and to optimize our workloads.

Embracing the cloud in a regulated industry 

To get started with the cloud, we needed to create internal awareness about cloud technology, the API layer, containers and their benefits amongst our leaders and staff. Google helped us educate and get buy-in from key functions by organizing open technology demonstration sessions and discussion panels. When considering potential cloud providers we had four decision criteria: maturity of security controls, ease of use, cost, and scalability / agility for new deployments and continuous innovation. This last factor was critical, and we were impressed by Google Cloud’s innovation roadmap, both via direct conversations and at Google’s Next conference, where we met a lot of people passionate about technology, innovation and building something new.  

Going back to our journey, given the above-mentioned regional limitations, we started to develop a hybrid cloud approach. This helped us continue to operate on-premises for a number of services in production, particularly those that have personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive data attached, and to leverage the cloud for development, testing and production workloads that don’t contain customer data. 

In the short term, we didn’t anticipate that our many jurisdictions would allow data to be transported to other countries. But cloud tools will allow us to tokenize or anonymize customer data while maintaining customer data on-premises. This applies to many digital journeys such as customer onboarding, credit facility online applications, or marketplace navigation. In the coming years, we predict our API integration with partners will accelerate and enrich the overall digital value proposition of our business segments, namely consumer banking, small and medium-size businesses and large corporate and institutional clients. 

Building connections and cornerstones in the cloud

The first move in our digital transformation was to implement Apigee, Google Cloud’s API management platform, to connect to the world’s digital banking ecosystem. Apigee provides the security, sharing, mediation policies, and developer portal capabilities for us to successfully meet Open Banking standards while focusing on innovation.  

On the back of the Apigee implementation, we created an accelerator program to incubate Fintech ideas that can, in turn, integrate into our digital platforms and be offered to our customers. We also developed various banking APIs, all designed and documented in accordance with PSD2 and Open Banking regulations, and made them available to our partners. These APIs exposed on our API development portal offer the needed code structure for fintech companies to design creative solutions around them.

Next, we adopted Anthos, Google Cloud’s managed application platform. Anthos has become a cornerstone of our operations because it works across hybrid cloud, offering integration of microservice containers and fueling collaborative opportunities with external parties. Our current Anthos infrastructure includes several hundreds of  microservices now running on containers in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and on-premises. We now use the cloud for collaboration, development and testing, but not for production, which is done on-premises. 

Along the way, Google Cloud’s Professional Services Organization (PSO) helped us through the entire cloud setup process, and with the adoption of Anthos. We originally built on the cloud tools through an iterative process, learning from our successes and errors along the way. Now that we have a better sense of how Anthos operates, we’re building a fresh infrastructure atop a sound, stable, and resilient foundation that will let us scale easily as we work to transform Arab Bank into a digital-first enterprise, that is our ambition. 

Currently products running on Anthos include customer acquisition and onboarding via mobile apps, and our Arabi-Pay app, which allows customers to instantly pay each other via WhatsApp or other messaging platforms. Leveraging Anthos, our instant loan service for Arab Bank salaried employees can grant and disburse loans up to $7,000 in less than seven minutes.

In addition, we’ve built a number of digital journeys for our Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) customers, such as our SME client digital onboarding process and paperless SME lending platform.

While some may think that digital adoption in this part of the world can be slow, as customer contact remains anchored in our customs, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital banking services and electronic payments, inspiring more confidence to buy and pay online. Thanks to our rich and user-friendly banking app that relies on Apigee and Anthos for critical customer journeys, over 90% of new-to-bank customers are using our mobile apps. Within the next 18 months, we predict that number will be closer to 100%. 

Of course, with higher customer adoption comes the challenge of potential service interruptions. A single moment of downtime can be highly visible to many digital customers. But Google Cloud’s Anthos and Apigee give us the flexibility to resume processes at a fast rate, so any interruptions are almost invisible to our customers. In fact, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, though our branches could be open only for limited hours each day, our consumer clients in particular were able to take advantage of our digital services in a very self-sufficient manner. Being well positioned with Google Cloud, we could also keep our internal teams and external partners connected and productive. Without Google Cloud, continuing the digital transformation of the bank at the pace we wanted would have been a big challenge. 

Collaborating across borders and time zones

With Google Cloud, our ability to collaborate and partner has transformed significantly. We operate 24/7 now because our developers are scattered across multiple geographies and different time zones. Because testing and deployment can run around the clock, including on weekends, we currently deploy a new digital journey in a few weeks, faster than ever before. This has given our organization a spirited mindset that prioritizes innovation, and raised the bar in terms of our operating model.  

Another consideration about Google Cloud tools is the elimination of inefficient processes typically seen in a software development lifecycle. We now build in a completely agile manner, from design squads until deployment in production. Compared to where we were two years ago, when we had an annual maximum of two systems releases in production, we now have close to monthly releases of our digital packages. In addition, we also  supplement those monthly releases with additional ad-hoc releases and fixes in between. As a result, we have removed internal silos and improved tremendously the collaboration between the product and sales teams, operations, IT Dev Factory and Infrastructure, as well as our supporting functions.

Through the agile process facilitated by APIs, we introduced Design Thinking workshops involving external customers and prospects early on to understand their true pain points better and emotions during the existing journeys and how to make new digital journeys frictionless. As a result, the relevance of our products for various customer personas has improved tremendously. 

Transcending banking 

With Google Cloud, we can offer our customers so much more than just banking. We’ve become more digitally relevant to their lives. For example, we recently launched a mortgage app that helps customers all the way from home selection through mortgage negotiations and closing, and even to getting the home decorated. It’s an end-to-end journey in which API integration with key regional players was a cornerstone to our success. 

For other digital products, we have an extensive roadmap of lifestyle-based solutions relevant to each segment and age group. We’ve only scratched the surface of the services we can provide, and we see the cloud as the future for everything we want to do.

Read more about Google Cloud’s Open Banking solution to learn how you can simplify and accelerate the process of delivering open banking as required by PSD2. You can also view our video on Open Banking, powered by Apigee API Management.

As an IT architect or IT professional, you are essential to the success of your organization, responsible for designing, building, and maintaining the IT systems that your businesses and governments rely on. As if that wasn’t enough, you’ve also got to constantly learn and adapt to keep up with the demand of an ever-changing IT landscape — especially when technologies like generative AI suddenly emerge and become a crucial part of your business. Did you know that 77% of companies are using or plan to use AI in the future? And that’s growing year over year. Then there are the constant firedrills, a contributing factor in 40% of IT professionals being at risk of burnout. So, the fundamental question you’re asking yourself is: how can I do my job successfully, but with less toil and stress?

Well, we come with good news! First, Google Cloud has a plethora of ways to help you evolve your IT landscape quickly, easily, and effectively. And second, our upcoming event, Google Cloud Next ‘23 from August 29th to 31st, is exactly what you need to learn more about capitalizing on those opportunities. But if you’re still on the fence about going, let’s power through five scenarios that might be on your plate right now, and how Next ‘23 can help you  

#1 — Architect infrastructure for AI workloads 

Chances are good that you’ve been asked to spin up new resources to run emerging AI-based applications on. At Next ‘23, we’ll show you how you can innovate, scale and optimize workloads quickly, safely, and cost effectively with purpose-built infrastructure that has AI efficiencies baked-in. Google is an AI-first company, so our AI-optimized infrastructure is built to deliver the global scale and performance demanded by our own products such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play, and Android, all of which serve billions of users. It’s also designed for intensive workloads like training and serving large language models like PaLM 2, the basis of generative AI features and tools Bard and the PaLM API. 

Google’s deep experience in AI and cloud computing means that Google Cloud is uniquely positioned to present one of the strongest AI infrastructure offerings on the market. Here’s a few ways you can learn about our AI infrastructure during Next ‘23: 

• Watch our exciting spotlight session “What’s next for architects and IT professionals,” where our GMs will explore what’s coming for infrastructure and AI/ML. 
• Attend our “Build your organization’s future on Google AI and machine learning infrastructure” breakout session, or check out dozens of others on AI/ML. 
• Visit our AI Innovation pavilion within our Demo Showcase. 
• Get hands on (literally!) with some of our AI infrastructure at our Hardware-verse.
• Upgrade your AI/ML skillsets with our live training workshops at the Innovators Hive.

#2 — Build and run modern container-based applications quickly and securely 

Your org has no doubt been using containers and Kubernetes for years, but are they Google Cloud containers and Kubernetes? Google Cloud provides one of the best places to run modern containerized workloads, packaging more than a decade’s worth of experience launching several billion containers per week into our offerings, so that developers and businesses of many sizes can tap the latest in container innovation. 

IT pros who are building modern, container-based applications often choose Google Cloud because of its managed services and range of database options, so developers can quickly build applications securely and at scale. For these types of use cases, here’s where you should spend some time during Next ‘23: 

• Watch our GM Spotlight session “What’s next for IT operations,” which will dive deep into everything from containers to AI. 
• Learn how legendary gaming company CAPCOM is running Street Fighter 6 on Google Cloud in this breakout session “The future of modern enterprise applications with Google Kubernetes Engine,” and browse all our other great container sessions. 
• Come and mingle with your friends and peers in our Innovators Hive Community Hub.
• Watch our Innovator Hive Lightning Talk “How to run ML workloads in GKE with Cloud TPU and GPU.”
• Visit our Containers area at the Demo Showcase.

#3 — Boost traditional enterprise applications with high reliability, scale, and price-performance

Cloud-native workloads are great and all, but traditional enterprise workloads such as ERP, databases, web apps, and mainframes continue to be the lifeblood of the organization. These workloads will likely not disappear. They are evolving into more modern versions of themselves — often with major opportunities for modernization using data analytics and AI. Now more than ever, CIOs have to ensure these workloads are healthy and thriving.     

Google Cloud ensures that our platform design and choices are centered on real-world workloads like SAP and VMware. We simplify the migration and modernization decision-making process so customers can get to the cloud confidently with an intuitive set of options and prescriptive solutions that deliver better reliability, security, scale, performance, and cost. At Next ‘23, there are a ton of ways to learn more about solving these challenges: 

• No matter what you’re looking to deploy or migrate, we’ve got a breakout session for you. For starters, check out “How Sabre migrated their apps and data centers to Google Cloud with speed and ease,” “Accelerate innovation with SAP on Google Cloud,” or any of these others.
• Explore how our customer ADT successfully migrated their VMware estate to Google Cloud by visiting their interactive story in our Demo Showcase.
• Click through Migration Center, our unified service for end-to-end migration and modernization, as well as other demos at our Architect’s Corner of Innovators Hive.

#4 – Run on high performance, distributed infrastructure

Google Cloud’s infrastructure isn’t limited to what we run in our data centers. If your business or government needs infrastructure designed for sovereignty, scale, security, and high-intensity compute workloads, we’ve got exactly what you need:

• For governments and highly regulated businesses, we have unique offerings and services including Google Distributed Cloud Hosted and Google Cloud Sovereign Solutions for organizations with specific sovereignty and security needs. 
• For Telecommunications, we have purpose-built telecom offerings to help Communication Service Providers (CSPs) digitally transform their networks with hybrid cloud principles and identify new revenue opportunities. In addition, we have Google Distributed Cloud Edge which provides an open, Kubernetes-based offering tuned for telecom network workloads.

• Telecoms should also be sure to check out “How Google Cloud helps shape and transform Telecom Network deployment and monetization models” and live on the edge at the Demo Showcase. 
• And for Distributed Cloud, make sure you attend “Running AI at the edge to deliver modern customer experiences” and “Mind the air gap: How cloud is addressing today’s sovereignty needs”, or visit our area at the Demo Showcase.

#5 — Save money and help meet sustainability ambitions

Everyone knows that AI can help you do more, faster, but did you know that our AI-assisted recommendations and cost optimization tools can help you save money and  to plan for strong financial resiliency? Take control of your cloud spending and optimize costs through APIs, Cloud Scheduler, and with Committed Use Discounts (CUDs). Complementary to these cost optimization capabilities, we’ve also built a collection of tools to help you accurately report on the carbon emissions associated with your Google Cloud usage and take action to reduce your carbon footprint and costs. Looking to learn more at Next ‘23, here’s what you need to explore:

• For sustainability, register for our “GreenOps: Drive carbon and cost efficiencies with a new wave of developer tools” breakout session.
• And for cost savings, check out “Creating a FinOps culture change through cloud automation” and “Unlock cloud value for everyone with Google Cloud FinOps tools”, and also visit our cost optimization area at the Demo Showcase.

So, what do you think: are any of those challenges on your plate right now? If they are, we hope you’ll join us at Next ‘23 starting on August 29th, so that we can show you how we live up to your motto: your cloud, your way. See you soon!