Last week, Amazon introduced a panoply of new smart home devices in the United States for American consumers to talk to their Smart Assistant, Alexa, whether they’re using the kitchen microwave, listening to music, or watching TV. or do laundry, for example. There, in the United States, these types of devices are being deployed in homes at a very accelerated rate, in part thanks to the commercial whirlwind that Amazon itself has undertaken with its ‘Echo’, Apple with its ‘Home Pod’, Google with its ‘Google Home’ and soon, it seems, Facebook with Smart home that is about to appear.
Experts such as the consulting firm PwC estimate that in 2021 there will be 1.8 billion people in the world using these smart assistants, with which we will communicate by voice, at home or outside of it. But what remains to be resolved is whether they are and will be really useful. It is one of the reasons why the United States has conducted a survey among users of this type of device to really see its usefulness.
At the moment, according to some of the conclusions of PwC itself, and although the adoption of Smart homes is increasing, they are still used mainly for very basic tasks. Of the total number of people asked in the study by the consultant, only 10% acknowledged that they were not familiar with voice-controlled products and devices. Of the 90% who were, the majority used a voice assistant (72%).
“ Younger consumers are the ones driving its adoption, but not necessarily heavy usage ,” says PwC. Although younger consumers (ages 18-24) are adopting voice technology at a faster rate than their elders, they are statistically using it less. Those 25 to 49 years old use them more often.
Three in four consumers (74%) use their voice assistants at home, and the majority of study participants noted that they prefer privacy when talking to them and say that using it in public “just looks weird. This, PwC says, could explain why 18-24 year olds use their voice assistants less, as this age group tends to spend more time away from home.
Despite growing capabilities, basic tasks remain the norm. Most consumers have not yet ventured into purchasing or controlling other smart home devices from the smart assistant. “Younger men and consumers are more likely to experiment with newer and more advanced features, but even then, it’s minimal,” says the consultancy.
Consumers see voice assistants as the smartest, fastest, and easiest way to do everyday activities. However, for more serious money-related situations they prefer what they already know and trust, at least for now. 50% of respondents have made a purchase using their voice assistant, and an additional 25% would consider doing so in the future. Most of the items purchased are small and fast, and are things that someone could buy without necessarily having to see you physically.
“Privacy,” says PwC in its study, “is a concern.” For example, one survey participant was adamant about the need for her voice assistant to detect if she was alone before making recommendations based on her past purchase history. There was also unrest around other family members, such as children or spouses, who had access to the voice assistant and could buy things with a credit card.
57% of consumers said they would rather see an ad in the middle of a television show than hear an ad spoken by their virtual assistant. To make advertising more attractive to the latter, consumers accept that they would be willing to listen to ads through their smart butler if they can say “skip” if they don’t like an ad (88%); if they are asked if they want to listen to the ad before playing it (82%); if the ads do not interrupt previously identified events, for example listening to music (81%); if they choose the ad they hear (80%); whether ads are only played at pre-approved times (79%); whether the ads are personalized by comments / questions previously addressed to their voice assistant (73%); or, for example, if the user can interact with the ad by talking to him (70%).
Overall satisfaction with voice assistants in the home is high, but less so with smartphone-based ones, according to PwC. Voice assistants on smartphones have the lowest consumer satisfaction rate. Only 38% are very satisfied. Even so, its use will continue to grow, although in the youngest the use of smart phones is tending to decrease over time.
What users ask of their voice assistants, both at home and those on smartphones, is that “they be more precise, understand the accent and diction of the person speaking to them, that they differentiate between the different voices and people that speak to them and, ultimately, that help them make life easier ”.
And that’s what Amazon seems to have understood, and hence the recent launch of multiple devices with Alexa for the home. Although it will take time to see them in Spain, Rohid Prasad, vice president and scientific director of Amazon said in his presentation that “during the past year we made incredible scientific advances in the artificial intelligence (AI) of Alexa. We have applied deep neural networks to advance capacity. to detect challenging acoustic phenomena such as whispered speech and anomalous events such as glass breakage, and we made progress by combining transfer learning and deep learning to teach Alexa new languages and capabilities faster, as well as better understanding contextual and additional memory to help clients discover skills and ask questions more naturally. “
