At the end of 2020, 258 million US consumers will have access to smart speakers. This year, 35.6 million Americans used a voice-activated device at least once a month.
This means conversational devices and services is no longer an emerging market. It’s already here, as well as the opportunities with it.
“The future of personalized customer experience is inevitably tied to ‘Intelligent Assistance’.”
Amazon Echo and Google Home are a part of the current artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things technology shift.
Arguably, after smartphones, this is the consumer technology
shift of our decade.
Conversational devices are a step towards it. These voice-first devices that are always on are intelligent pieces of hardware where the primary interface is voice, both input and output.
The most exciting aspect of conversational devices is that they’re shifting our electronics towards an ecosystem for both iOS and Android users.
You can control and interact through them with your smartphone, smart TV, smart thermostat, lights, and so on. And that’s where the limitless possibilities begin.
“We are entering a new world. The technologies of machine learning, speech recognition, and natural language understanding are reaching a nexus of capability. The end result is that we’ll soon have artificially intelligent assistants to help us in every aspect of our lives.”
The market is developing fast. Currently the growth is estimated at 80% CAGR, and the market penetration is about 15% of households in the US alone.
Businesses and developers are getting on board. Recently, Google Home teamed up with Walmart to launch its own voice-shopping option that lets people order everyday products.
It’s not an overstatement to say that all businesses will shift to voice in some way. While some industries, like insurance, may not see an immediate impact, there’s no question we’ll start talking to chatbots, virtual assistants and other AI technology through verbal means.
