Smart Speakers As Gateway Drugs
Evidence suggests that smart speaker adoption is the springboard to welcoming voicebots into other areas of our lives.
Excuse the pun, but doesn’t it seem that Voice Assistants have had a relatively “stuttering” start into the European market?
Presumably it’s something to do with the self-conscious amongst us (me included) not being entirely comfortable with talking to a robot in public.
In the last two weeks, however, Amazon’s Alexa has rolled out it’s new “Whisper Mode”. Now, even the most reluctant “speakers” can activate their bot without arousing awkward glances from the people around them.
As it sounds, the voice revolution is coming. And it promises to be a monumental leap forward for our ability to communicate with AI.
Bret Kinsella is one the world’s foremost figures in the voice industry and is the headline speaker — via video link from the US — at a London Chatbot and Voice Assistant MeetUp. His website, voicebot.ai, and podcast, are the go-to resources for voicebot coverage.
Voice in 2018: Where It’s At
Beginning in 2011 with Apple’s Siri, then Amazon Echo (2014), and more recently Google Home (2016), Kinsella says, “we are entering Phase II of voice assistant’s mass-proliferation.”
He starts with watertight data gathered this week from a national survey in the US:
Today, there are 57.8 million people using smart speakers in the US. In January this year, that figure was 47.3 million, meaning smart speakers alone have experienced 22.2% growth in ten months.
That means, smart speakers are growing faster than smartphones!
Things are slightly more sedate in the UK with approximately 10% population take up. Still, that’s a considerable 6.6 million people.
After the US and UK, early mass-adopters are the usual suspects: Germany, Canada, Japan and Australia. By the end of 2018, Kinsella says, “we’re looking at 100 million unit usage, worldwide.”
Smart Speakers As Gateway Drugs
This may sound like the most provocative of headlines, but it is one supported by respondents to voicebot.ai’s user-base surveys:
- 61% of early adopters have encouraged their friends to get a smart speaker
- 54% of users wouldn’t want to go back to life without their smart speaker
- 56% agree that after getting a smart speaker, they are using the voice-operate assistant on their smartphone more
When considered, the first two stats are actually less compelling than the headline suggests. We need to unpack all three a little to fully understand their gravitas.
The first two sentiments can arguably be be aligned with any product or service, from any era, for any age group of people. They are not technically tech-related.
For example, a schoolkid from the 1990s who is enjoying a Sony walkman would plausibly have a high chance of encouraging friends to get one too.
Similarly, a pensioner today who is benefiting from a free bus pass would probably prefer to live with it, rather than without it. Alas, these first two statistics are a little redundant.
However, the final statistic is hugely significant.
Smart speakers have been a breakthrough technology, or “gateway drug”, for users to adopt ‘voice’ elsewhere. Smart speakers do not only normalise a way of interacting with tech. Rather they train people on how to speak to a bot.
In a sense, it’s not only a case of the technology becoming more sophisticated. It actually requires us humans to progress forward too.
Why Does Voice Matter So Much?
The three distinct tech eras of the digital age are bound by three distinct User Interfaces (UI):
For the web we had to “click”.
For mobile we only had to “touch”.
And for the forthcoming AI revolution, we are going to have to “speak”.
Kinsella explains why AI demands speech recognition.
For AI to fulfil its potential it needs to obtain agency. People will only grant this agency if a bond of trust is established. So, for AI and humans to connect, a method of communication needs to be installed that is singular to the user.
The complex dynamics of our voices are unique, and whilst our fingerprints are also unique and they could (and have) provided the conduit for tech-activation, being handsfree is the profound next step with our engagement with technology.
Are You Using Voice Yet?
Statistics that smart speakers are growing faster than smartphones ten years ago seems altogether mind blowing at the moment.
The clear inference is that if you have not already embraced voice technology yet, you will do in the next few years.
The fact is, microphones will soon be recording everything.
The question remains, however, what’s behind the mic?
Craig writes for Calcey Technologies, a boutique software product engineering agency with roots in the Silicon Valley, that lends its software development muscle to start-ups and scale-ups around the world. Calcey’s client portfolio includes global names such as PayPal and Stanford University, alongside numerous exciting startups, including Nutrifix (UK), Nelly.com (Sweden) and MyBudget(Australia). The team of 100+ engineers, based at its development centre in Sri Lanka, are looking to engage with more startups.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +384,399 people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
