On his final earnings call as chief executive of gene sequencing company Illumina Inc., Francis deSouza did his best to stay positive. A contentious US$8-billion takeover of cancer screening business Grail LLC had prompted a campaign by activist investor Carl Icahn, fights with competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic and criticism from Grail’s founding directors.
But each time he was asked about Grail, there were shifts in his speech rate, pitch and volume, according to Speech Craft Analytics, which usesto analyze audio recordings. There was also an increase in filler words such as “um” and “ah” and even an audible gulp. The combination “betrays signs of anxiety and tension specifically when addressing this sensitive issue,” according to David Pope, Speech Craft Analytics chief data scientist. The idea that audio recordings could provide tips on executives’ true emotions has caught the attention of some of the world’s largest investors