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Voice Assistants BII

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Voice assistants have long been lauded as the next big platform to allow companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft to fully embed themselves within everyday life.

But a recent survey suggests that there is still a ways to go before these digital assistants will be embraced by the masses, according to Creative Strategies.

The study of 500 mainstream consumers in the US and their use of smartphone-based voice assistants (across both iOS and Android devices) found that a majority had, at some point, used the voice assistant on their devices. Only 2% of iOS users had not used Siri, and just 3% of Android users had not used OK Google. It’s important to note, however, that of these active users, a majority across both platforms — 70% for Siri, and 62% for OK Google — only rarely or sometimes use the voice assistants.

Just over a third of respondents say they use voice assistants in the home. However, there are two key results of study that offer some keen insights into where voice assistants are most used, and then why the technology is not near mass adoption:

The hands-free capability is the main draw. 51% of all respondents say they use voice assistants while driving. The hands-free capabilities that voice assistants afford suggest that respondents in this instance are using voice assistants because they’re forced to, rather than because they want to.
Consumers don’t use voice assistants in public. 20% of participants that said they had never used a voice assistant noted that it is because they feel uncomfortable talking to their devices in public. Furthermore, just 1.3% of participants say they use voice assistants at work and just 6% in public.

Taken together, these results are interesting, particularly the latter, largely because they indicate that users are overwhelmingly unlikely to use the technology unless they’re forced to.

Nevertheless, the use of voice assistants will become increasingly important in the future, especially as smartphones integrate with IoT devices, such as home hubs and connected cars. Once speech recognition reaches 99% (it's at approximately 90% now) voice should become the most efficient form of computing input, primarily due to its “always on” nature, according to Mary Meeker's Internet Trends report. This will shift the way users interact with their connected devices, making voice the primary platform for consumerism.

It's important, therefore, that app developers continue to incorporate voice capabilities or risk falling behind their competitors.

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