It created a speech-based electronic secretary in October 1994, pioneering the field of intelligent software assistance accessed completely through the use of natural language.
[2][3] Wildfire Communications was founded in 1992 by inventor Bill Warner, vice president of marketing Nick d'Arbeloff, director of engineering Rich Miner, and chief designer Tony Lovell.
[7][8] Though users could also use touchtones to control Wildfire, the system's recorded voice prompts elicited them to speak their commands, reinforcing the interactive model of co-workers on a business call.
[10] Orange continued to offer Wildfire to its wireless subscribers until 2005, when it decided to terminate the product due to insufficiently broad use.
[11][12] Wildfire directly influenced several widely used voice user interface-based systems through the work of Blade Kotelly, who moved from a position in usability testing at Wildfire Communications to become Creative Director of Interface Design for SpeechWorks, where he designed richly anthropomorphic systems for United Airlines, E-Trade and other clients.