How Intelligent Voice Assistants Could Give You an Edge

“Ok Google, book a cab now.

“Hey Cortana, Open Microsoft Word.

A couple of years ago, Alexa, Google Assistance, Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana, etc. were just names – but not anymore. With the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), these digital assistants now can book appointments, open programs, answer emails, and carry out various other tasks. Intelligent voice assistants, a.k.a virtual assistants, in fact, have redefined how we interact with our devices and software

Even in enterprise settings, these virtual assistants are becoming increasingly useful. Enterprise mobility is the new trend and the rapid proliferation of mobile apps has amplified the value of these intelligent voice assistants even more

Digital Assistants – Who are They?

The history of digital assistant dates back to 1961 – with the inception of IBM’s Shoebox Device. But it took more than fifty years to deliver a usable voice assistant. Both Amazon Echo and Microsoft’s Cortana were released in 2014, followed by Siri, Google Assistant, and others. And intelligent voice assistants now become mainstream.

A recent Google survey report reveals that 72 percent of consumers make use of virtual assistant as a part of their daily schedule. In order to fetch info on new brands and products, virtual assistants are used by 52 percent of these users.

Prevailing Landscape of Voice Assistants

Forward-thinking businesses these days are leveraging intelligent voice assistants to deliver better customer experience and drive growth. The Global Banking & Finance Review study shows, “88 percent of CXOs believe that by deploying voice assistants into their daily operations they can gain a competitive advantage and remain successful.

Let us look at some of the current state and predictions of Intelligent Voice Assistants:

• Voice search is the future; 50 percent of search will be voice search by 2020 (Search Engine Land)
• A study shows that voice recognition platforms are three times faster and accurate than typed text. (Stanford)
• More than 20 percent of Google search is now carried out by voice (Startribune)
• More than 20 percent of businesses will adopt voice assistants and voice-assisted search by 2020 Voice assistants have been moving into the enterprise ecosystem. By introducing these assistants, enterprises could not only deliver better consumer experience but also improve overall productivity levels.

According to the research firm Gartner, intelligent voice assistants are capable of saving up to 6.2 billion employee hours. With deep learning, these digital agents could solve problems faster and free up employees’ time for more productive work.

How You Can Get an Edge

Now the question is how you can leverage the tremendous potential of voice assistants for your business. Well, you can embed it in your existing channels for better customer service and logistics experience. There are many more. Let us look at the benefits of intelligent voice assistants.

• Alexa and Google Home have already won the heart of millions. IoT (Internet of Things) is going to be the next big thing, and mobile apps and voice assistants will be the center of the entire IoT ecosystem. Digital assistants, combined with better deep learning and NLP, is going to be a paradigm shift in a consumer’s digital experience. As the end-user experience changes, it will fundamentally change the way in which your business communicates with your customers.
• Businesses that aim to deliver better customer experience with mobile apps for them, intelligent voice assistant technology is not just a stand-alone solution. It is a constantly evolving technology, which provides multi-channel engagement and future-ready.
• Native chatbots can enhance your control of data and help you deliver better customer experience. Voice assistant could easily be accessed onsite, on social, on email and on a device, making your customer’s life easier and better.
• Integrating a voice-bot solution can also reduce your time to market. You can easily create a prototype within a few weeks and launch it for customer use. And simultaneously, you can continue training the assistant with live data.
• By reducing product development overhead, you can save operational cost. From the discussion, it is quite evident that the impact of intelligent voice assistants on businesses is going to be paramount. Regardless of the size of your business, you need to include a voice assistant in your enterprise mobile app to make your business more efficient and get an edge.