Exploring the Future of Voice-Enabled Commerce
In March, I had the pleasure to participate on a panel, titled “Search for Tomorrow: The Future of Voice-Powered Discovery and Ecommerce,” at Adweek’s Elevate: AI conference. The conference was small — perhaps a little more than 150 people — but the sessions were informative, engaging and standing-room only. The only thing more inspiring than the dialogue was the breathtaking view of lower Manhattan’s bridges, buildings and landmarks from The Boston Consulting Group’s mid-town offices.
Being immersed in developing A.I. technologies and strategies for Walmart, it was great to be surrounded by and share ideas with other like-minded technologists, consultants and brand marketers — as well as some contrarians, which made for quite the lively discussion. Overall, hearing executives from leading brands speak about the state of the technology and their current and future use-cases was exciting and I enjoyed sharing a glimpse of Walmart’s A.I. strategy and product roadmap.
The conference was keynoted by Deloitte Digital CMO Alicia Hatch, who said that in today’s world, people use an average of two to three connected devices, but in five to ten years that number will skyrocket to between 40 and 100 connected devices — including smart appliances and other IoT devices. The data generated by these devices will be enormous, and data will be the battleground upon which marketers will win or lose. Clearly this would be a great topic for a future blog post.
Joining me on stage for my panel were Tom Goodwin, Head of Innovation at Zenith Media; Vivian Rosenthal, Founder and CEO at Snaps, a mobile messaging platform connecting brands to millennials; and Josh Sternberg, Adweek’s tech editor who moderated the discussion. Without a doubt, this panel and subsequent Q&A was the liveliest and most engaging of the conference — partially due to Tom’s contrarian POV, but also because the audience soon realized that Walmart was putting into practice what many others were simply theorizing. It showed that our thinking is more evolved, and we’ve definitely gone deeper than most in terms of consumer use cases.
Tom opined that voice assistant technology is not going to change the face of retail. Because this interaction model is so new, he believes the industry is getting way more excited than it should be, and that we have no idea where the technology is going.
Naturally, I would disagree. New technologies create new channels and new opportunities for retailers. Just as highways led to the creation of Big Box retailers, the Internet paved the way for e-commerce, and smartphones facilitated m-commerce, voice-enabled commerce is another way for Walmart to reach its customers and provide a convenient shopping experience wherever they may be.
Voice as an interaction medium will be pervasive. It’s already part of our mobile phones. To Alicia Hatch’s point, it will find its way into more devices and in more places where people spend their time, such as in cars, or kitchen appliances or other spaces. The challenge we face is how Walmart will be able to serve all of our customers in all these locations and circumstances? The answer is, the customer will decide.
When smartphones came about, people were worried about how they would communicate on a phone without a keyboard. But consumers quickly saw the value of tapping on the glass and they re-trained themselves. Right now, voice interaction is awkward — each device is different, and you have to speak to them in a certain way in order to be understood. But voice will look very different in a year or two as the technologies and interfaces improve, and as consumers adapt to this new technology. We believe this channel will demonstrate significant value and be very popular for our customers.
The other challenge is what kind of technology to pursue? Vivian Rosenthal told the audience that she tends to push clients toward chatbot strategies, versus more robust voice applications, because voice — in its current state — is not a great way to interact with brands. Chatbots work, on the other hand, and they’re readily available today. In my opinion, chatbots are better suited for customer support and customer interaction, but not good for initiating commerce. I believe a blended approach works better than relying on a single channel.
For instance, right now, if you’re cooking and run out of olive oil, you can tell your connected speaker — which is essentially a chatbot — to add olive oil to your shopping list or cart, which you will use the next time you go to the store or buy online. But in the future, more intelligent and interactive devices will already know what type and brand of olive oil you prefer. It will sense that you are cooking and will ask you if you’d like to schedule an immediate delivery. It will use your voice to authorize and authenticate payment for the oil and handle all the logistics so that the goods will arrive at your door within a specified time.
To Tom’s point, there is a general euphoria and high expectations for what amounts to a nascent technology. The prevailing sentiment that A.I. will change everything — from delivering an exciting new customer experience to creating a brand new, successful channel from Day One — is not surprising. This happens whenever groundbreaking new tech is introduced. Consumer expectations for home-based virtual assistants run high, thanks to the success of their smartphone-based counterparts. Now it’s up to the technology to deliver.
While primary use-cases for these devices are playing music, checking the weather, seeking information and controlling smart-home devices, voice-based shopping is growing in prominence. According to a study from OC&C Strategy Consultants, 62% of home-based virtual assistant owners use it to buy groceries or some other item. The firm predicted purchases made through these devices will leap from $2 billion to $40 billion by 2022 as the technology improves. Such predictions bode well for Walmart and its investment in voice commerce, and we’re excited to see where the technology will take us and our customers.
