Never heard of Viv Labs? By next week it could very well be the name on everyone's lips. A company that specialises in engineering artificial intelligence platforms, they are currently readying a new system that they believe will revolutionise the industry. In recent years, we've seen their work take the guise of Apple's Siri, but now Viv Labs has detailed an upcoming AI solution for The Washington Post. 

While the official name for this solution is not yet known, it's currently going by Viv. According to the company, Viv will take the functionality that users have come to know from Siri and expand it to a far larger scale. Precisely what that entails is unclear at this stage, and will likely be unveiled in its fully fledged state some time next week, following a recent tweet from Viv Labs' co-founder Dag Kittlaus.

Showtime next week after 3.5 years of work. https://t.co/s0i6gfu4BX

— Dag Kittlaus (@Dagk) 4 May 2016

In The Washington Post article, journalist Elizabeth Dwoskin describes Viv at work. The AI system was able to order four large made-to-order pizzas from a local Chicago restaurant for eight Viv Labs engineers. While that may not sound all that spectacular, Viv did so without any of the engineers having to place a phone call. As such, Viv not only got each pizza order correct, but also provide the delivery address.

"Of course, a pizza is just a pizza. But for Silicon Valley, a seemingly small change in consumer behavior or design can mean a tectonic shift in the commercial order, with ripple effects across an entire economy," notes Dwoskin. As such, it appears as if Viv Labs is further ahead of the commercial side of AI applications than anyone else at the moment. How it will be received by the market (and how it stacks up to the competition, such as Amazon's Echo) remains to be seen.