Talking Manual for the press

In one paragraph

Talking Manual gives any product its own voice assistant, reached by scanning a code that comes with it. Owners ask anything by voice or text and get answers from the official documents for their exact product, with the source named. Anything that needs a person goes straight to the business that sold it, already explained. It is built first for car dealerships, RV and camper dealers, board and card game publishers, gyms, vacation rentals, homes for sale and newly built homes, where the "manual" is the owner's, agent's or builder's own walkthrough video. It is not customer service: it answers the everyday questions nobody would call about, and hands real problems to people.

Facts

Coverage

• RVBusiness, October 23, 2026: "Talking Manual Provides AI Assistant for RV Dealers", by Laura Falin.

Try it yourself

These are public demonstrations. Voice works best on a phone: tap the microphone and talk, and interrupt it whenever you like.

• A 2027 Kia Sportage Plug-In Hybrid, answering from Kia's owner's manual and guides.
• A 2026 Grand Design Reflection 298BH travel trailer, answering from Grand Design's owner's manual, warranty guide and brochure.
• A 2026 Avalon LSZ Quad Lounge pontoon with a Mercury 115 FourStroke, answering from Avalon's and Mercury's public manuals, with Coast Guard recalls checked live.
• A Genie GS-1930 electric scissor lift, answering from Genie's public operator's manual, with its limits checked against the manual's pages.
• A Mitsubishi M-Series ductless heat pump, installed by a fictional contractor, answering from Mitsubishi's public operation manual, with its troubleshooting table and operating limits checked against the manual's pages.
• An Enphase solar and battery system (two IQ Battery 10C batteries with IQ8 microinverters), installed by a fictional installer, answering from Enphase's public owner's guide, with its light tables and outage recovery checked against the guide's pages, and REC's panel manual.
• Brindlewick Commons, a fictional apartment community, whose assistant learned the building from a walkthrough video, and Aldermoor Place, a fictional senior-living community answering from its menu and activity calendar.
• Hearts, the classic card game, with a rulebook Talking Manual wrote.
• Quarrystone Fitness, a fictional gym, with an AI trainer built from a walkthrough video of computer-generated photos.
• Tern Hollow Cottage, a fictional Cape Cod vacation rental, with a house assistant built the same way. Its answers about places nearby come from a live search and are real.
• 18 Wrenfield Lane, a fictional colonial in Concord, Massachusetts, with a listing assistant built from the (fictional) listing agent's walkthrough video. It is not for sale.
• 14 Larkspur Way, a fictional new home by the fictional builder Hollowmere Homes, with a home assistant built from an orientation walkthrough video of computer-generated photos and a homeowner manual and warranty written for the demo.

Talking Manual is not affiliated with Kia, Grand Design, Avalon, Mercury, Genie, Terex, Mitsubishi Electric or Bradford White. The vehicle demonstrations use each manufacturer's publicly available manuals, and requests made in the demos are simulated, so nothing is sent.

Videos

Every video is also on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/@TalkingManual, free to embed.

Each video includes a real conversation with the assistant, recorded live and unscripted. The owners, players, gym members, guests, buyers, homeowners, renters, residents and the heat pump and solar battery owners are voiced by actors; the dealerships (including Heronwick Marine), Brackenfield Equipment Rental, the publisher, the game Kelp & Kettle, the gym Quarrystone Fitness, the rental Tern Hollow Cottage, the listing 18 Wrenfield Lane (with its agent and brokerage) and the new home 14 Larkspur Way (with its builder, Hollowmere Homes) the apartment community Brindlewick Commons (with Ashgrove & Pell Residential) the contractor Mossgrove Heating & Plumbing and the installer Sorrelwick Solar & Power are fictional. The gym's, the cottage's, the two houses', the apartment building's, the heat pump's and the solar battery's walkthrough videos were made from computer-generated photographs.

Images

Free to use in coverage of Talking Manual.

The three scene photographs are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of customers.

Product images (real screenshots, 1600×900)

Story angles

• Car dealers: the delivery folder is where service loyalty is lost. New owners have dozens of small questions in the first months, and the answers sit in a manual of several hundred pages.
• RV dealers: a new RV owner is suddenly responsible for water, propane, two electrical systems and a dozen appliances. The walk-through ends in the lot; the questions start at the first campsite.
• HVAC and plumbing contractors: the first cold night brings the calls: why is it steaming, what does this light mean. A sticker on each system answers from that model's manual and the installer's handoff notes, with gas and carbon monoxide safety first, and service requests reach the contractor with the model, serial, symptom and whether the home has heat.
• Solar, battery and generator installers: the first storm brings the calls: what still works, why isn't the battery charging, what does this light mean. A sticker beside each battery or generator answers from the equipment's owner's manual and the installer's handoff notes, puts smoke and carbon monoxide first, never sends anyone onto the roof and never promises savings or credits, and service requests reach the installer already explained.
• Apartments and senior living: the office answers the same questions all day, and maintenance requests arrive as "the thing in my kitchen is leaking". One code in the lobby answers residents from the manager's own walkthrough video and handbook, and sends requests with the apartment, permission to enter and the pets. It never shares anything about another resident, and in senior living it never gives medical advice.
• Equipment rental: renters change every few days and many are using that model for the first time, while the operator's manual sits unopened in a box on the platform. A decal on every machine gives the manual in plain answers at the machine: the limits for indoors or outdoors, what an alarm means, never how to bypass a safety device. It does not replace operator training; it tells first-timers to get familiarized and sends breakdowns to the branch with the asset number.
• Boat dealers: every boat comes with two manuals, the builder's and the engine maker's, and the delivery walkthrough ends at the dock. The questions start at a crowded ramp on a Saturday morning: what to check, how many people it carries, what oil the engine takes. The assistant knows both manuals, checks the Coast Guard recall list live, and never says it is safe to go out.
• Gyms: most members use a fraction of the equipment because nobody showed them the rest. One walkthrough video gives every member a trainer that knows the whole floor, at five in the morning as well as at noon.
• Vacation rentals: hosts answer the same questions every stay, often late at night: the wifi, the TV input, the hot tub. One walkthrough video per house gives every guest an assistant that knows that house, in their own language, and never gives out a door code.
• Real estate: the listing portals' new AI assistants answer from listing data; nobody answers from what the listing agent knows. A walkthrough video gives every listing an assistant that tours buyers through it in the agent's words at any hour, follows fair-housing rules, and sends showing requests to the listing agent rather than to whoever buys the lead.
• Home builders: the site manager spends an hour showing the buyers the shut-offs, the panel and the filter, and a week later most of it is forgotten. The orientation walkthrough becomes an assistant the homeowners can ask for years, and warranty requests reach the builder already explained: what, where, since when, and what the photo showed. It quotes the warranty and never promises coverage.
• Game publishers: the rulebook is where a new game wins or loses its first play. Every question players ask shows the publisher exactly where the rulebook needs work, before the next printing.
• Why not just ChatGPT? A general assistant does not know the exact product, the business that sold it, or the owner's history, and it cannot pass a request to the dealer.

About the founder

Robert "Bo" Bennett, PhD, is the founder of Archieboy Holdings, LLC, a Massachusetts company that builds AI-powered products and websites. He holds a PhD in social psychology and is the author of Logically Fallacious.