A global survey by OpusResearch of 320 business leaders in 8 key industries, early this year, revealed that two-thirds (67%) of the respondents said they have already invested in voice assistants through mobile apps and smart speakers. The pandemic did accelerate the growth and adoption of cutting-edge technologies across industries. However, Voice AI had already established its place before that. The innovations in AI and disruptive technologies like IoT gave rise to smart devices and voice assistants.
Voice AI enables users to converse with softwares and applications, give commands, and get responses. Natural Language Processing, voice recognition technology, machine learning, and AI are the core techs that fueled the development of voice assistants. These days businesses use different AI voice assistants to enhance customer service, sales and drive growth.
According to a research report, the global voice assistant market is expected to reach a market value of USD 7,302.4 million by 2025 at a CAGR of 24.32%.
Voice assistants are not only a boon for individual users but also for business firms. The enterprises can use a wide variety of already available voice assistants or create their brand to enable personalized marketing, deliver consumer insights, enhance user experience, augment the human workforce, and more. The OpusResearch report suggests that the critical reasons why enterprises are adopting voice assistants are customer service (81%), sales (52%), and store operations and marketing and advertising (38% each). The finding of the report is right since businesses are becoming customer-centric today and this involves generating an excellent customer experience. According to the report, customer service is the top use case of deploying voice assistants in Telecommunications (96%), Financial Services (94%), and QSR/Restaurants (92%).
Voice assistants can unburden the employees by taking up repetitive tasks, query answering, customer interaction, etc., and enable them to focus on high-priority tasks. These smart devices are the best resource a business can have to streamline operations, scheduling, integrating data analytics, and aid research. The OpusResearch survey highlights the impact of Covid-19 in the higher penetration of voice assistants in companies. Since the pandemic put the spotlight on maintaining hygiene and social distancing, enterprises were looking for hands-free solutions, and voice assistants can serve this need effectively. The report brings forth the importance of developing independent voice assistants that can enable customization. It uses Soundhound Inc's Houndify Voice AI platform, which allows brands to develop their voice assistants as an example. Every business has its own needs and demands. The customer base varies for different industries. Thus, a customized voice assistant will enhance efficiency by serving specific needs.
The OpusResearch report identifies that eCommerce, voice ads and voice-enabled shopping are the primary area of interest of different business brands and some consider the return of investment as a significant metric to measure the success of these voice assistants. Accuracy and speed, customer satisfaction, and net promoter score some of the other success metrics for voice assistants.
Once adopted industry-wide, voice assistants are sure to improve business value, brand promotion, customer experience, revenue returns, and enhance the business operations in every way possible. The focus should be on developing customizable voice assistants that can serve specific industry needs without third-party involvement.
