The ultimate luxury for most of us would be an assistant who always listens to your call, anticipates your every need and takes action where necessary. That luxury is now available thanks to assistants with artificial intelligence, aka voice assistants.
Voice assistants come in somewhat small packages and after hearing a wake-word or command can perform a variety of actions. They can turn on lights, answer questions, play music, place online orders, etc.
There’s no need to confuse voice assistants with virtual assistants, who are people who work remotely and can handle all kinds of tasks. Rather, voice assistants are technology based. As voice assistants become more robust, their utility in both the personal and business realms will grow as well.
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to leverage voice assistant technology in both consumer and business environments.
So, what is a Voice Assistant?
It is practically impossible to call any technology that makes our lives easier by one name. There are a variety of terms that refer to agents that can perform tasks or services for an individual, and they are almost interchangeable— but not quite. We vary largely by how we communicate with the technology, the app, or a combination of the two.
Here are some basic definitions, similarities, and differences:
Intelligent Personal Assistant: This is software that can assist people with basic tasks, usually using natural language. Intelligent personal assistants can go online and search for an answer to a user’s question. Either text or voice can trigger an action.
Automated Personal Assistant: This term is synonymous with intelligent personal assistant.
Smart Assistant: Usually this term refers to the types of physical items that can provide different services by using smart speakers that listen to a wake-word to become active and perform some tasks. Amazon’s Echo, Home for Google and HomePod for Apple are types of smart assistants.
Virtual Digital Assistants: These are automated software applications or platforms that help the user understand either written or spoken language.
Chatbot: Text is the primary way a chatbot can help. Chatbots can simulate a human conversation. Many companies use these to answer basic questions in the customer service sector and to connect with a live person if necessary.
Voice Assistant: Voice is key here. A voice assistant is a digital assistant who uses voice recognition, speech synthesis, and natural language processing (NLP) to deliver a service through a given application.
The uses of voice assistants
Many devices that we use daily use voice assistants. They are in our homes on our smartphones and on smart speakers inside. These are used by many mobile apps and operating systems. In addition, certain technology can be operated by voices in automobiles, as well as in retail, education, health care, and telecommunications environments.
The growth of voice assistants
Technology is constantly progressing and changing, and along with it, the voice assistant market is going to progress. Research firm Gartner predicted in April 2015 that by the end of 2018, 30 per cent of technology interactions would be through “conversations” with smart machines, many of them by voice.
According to Global Market Insights, Inc., the technology market share will grow at an annual rate of nearly 35 per cent between 2016 and 2024. In addition to those found in devices like smart speakers and phones, more and more sectors of the economy, such as healthcare and the automotive industry, are finding uses for speech recognition technology.
According to a survey carried out by Google, 72 percent of voice assistant owners, not just voice assistant owners from Google, confirmed that their virtual assistant is being used as part of their daily routine. The survey also revealed that up to 52 per cent of these consumers want their virtual assistant to receive info about new brands and products.
Many forward-thinking businesses like yours are discovering that voice assistants can be great at more than just mundane tasks, such as setting alarms and relaying the local forecast. In fact, 88 per cent of business leaders believe in a recent study conducted by the Global Banking & Finance Review that their businesses can gain a competitive advantage and remain successful by integrating voice assistants into their daily operations.
The introduction of voice assistants to workforce will impact consumer experience, but will also improve overall levels of productivity in companies. Gartner, estimates that these automated helpers will recover up to 6.2 billion hours of hours of work based on results from a recent survey of voice assistants.
Thanks to innovations in deep learning, is that they can reduce the time it takes to solve problems, giving your employees more time to work on delivering successful solutions and services to clients and consumers.
The streamlined operations that come with integrating these digital assistants into your business are one of the most important business benefits of voice assistants. This enterprise AI technology provides the company with streamlined day-to-day operations that are continuously being monitored by reading information, analyzing data and keeping critical systems updated. Voice assistants are responsible for keeping track of important dates, deadlines and scheduling, so the staff have more time and resources to help drive creativity and reduce costs.
When it comes to augmenting human talent and improve clients’ experience than nothing can come close to through Voice Assistant. At Goavega, our knowledge coupled with technology, we offer you voice assistant service that makes your business stand out. Learn more about our voice assistant services.