Voice on Voice

From Siri to Alexa to Google Assistant, people use a variety of voice assistants in their daily lives, depending on what device they’re talking to. However, this creates friction in the household — that’s why initiatives like Matter and Alexa Custom Assistant are exploring how smart home devices can house multiple assistants at once.

Interactive voice advertisements have caught the attention of major brands looking to tap into novel ad experiences. Attribution has long been a pain point for advertisers — but with interactive audio ads, brands know when a listener engages with their spots, providing valuable insight into the effectiveness of a campaign.

A few weeks ago, The Verge explored Siri’s advances since its launch 10 years ago. While it was the first major voice assistant to be introduced, it has fallen behind competitors Alexa and Google Assistant, lacking complex functionality beyond answering questions and sending texts.

The past year has seen a flurry of voice activity in the QSR space, particularly in the drive-thru. White Castle, McDonald’s, and this week, Wendy’s, are all deploying voice to take customer orders. While voice ordering isn’t a novel use case, these implementations illustrate how valuable voice can be when paired with complementary technology.

In 2020, Siri was the second most popular voice assistant behind Google Assistant, with over 500 million users (compared to Google Assistant’s 1+ billion users). While its vast presence on mobile devices has given Siri a boost, the popular assistant has fallen short in meeting users’ expectations.

Last Tuesday, Amazon rolled out its new smart home products at its annual product launch event. The announcement included: the Astro smart home robot, Amazon’s first Alexa-enabled smart thermostat, the Echo Show 15, a Disney custom voice assistant, a video-calling device called Amazon Glow, the newest edition of fitness tracker Halo, and the official sign up for the Ring security drone.

The car is a hub of on-the-go activity — from taking and making calls to searching directions, drivers have their hands full (literally). As a result, voice assistants have become helpful tools by providing hands-free assistance. One use case emerging quickly is voice commerce in the car.

Voice technology’s deep roots in healthcare are only strengthening as companies and organizations discover the operational efficiencies that voice can drive. Early movers in the healthcare world like Saykara, Suki, and Robin Healthcare got their start building custom voice assistants for healthcare professionals to input and retrieve patient data without using their hands or breaking focus from their patients.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for smart glasses. Marked by the failure of Google Glass (now repositioned for enterprise use), which was initially introduced in 2013, smart glasses are experiencing a revival as many other tech companies try their hand at the accessory.

One of the ways voice assistants are evolving to be more frictionless and valuable to users is through adding proactive capabilities that often don’t require speaking more. While we want our assistants to be there for us, they need to assist while being unobtrusive. Features like automatic camera tracking on the Facebook Portal and Echo Show smart displays keep users in the frame during pictures or video.