48% Of People Use Digital Voice Assistants To Search The Web, Survey Found

29/07/2019

According to a survey from Adobe, 48% of consumers are already using their voice for “general web searches”.

This is showing how voice as a search interface has grown dramatically in terms of usage over the years.

After surveying about 1,000 U.S. adults, Adobe found that almost all users (94%) consider voice technology easy to use and say it does more than save time, improving "their quality of life". 92% agreed that "voice technology saves me time".

And In terms of usage frequency, 44% of the respondents said they use voice technology in some form daily.

The company's report found 85% of respondents used voice technology on their smartphones, while 39% use smart speakers.

Adobe Voice Technology Study, July 2019
Source: Adobe Voice Technology Study, July 2019

The following were the top current uses of voice (mostly on smartphones):

  1. Directions while driving: 52%.
  2. Making a phone call: 51%.
  3. Sending a text: 50%.
  4. Checking the weather: 49%.
  5. Playing music: 49%.
  6. General web searches: 48%.
  7. Setting alarms: 41%.
  8. Checking the news: 27%.
  9. Sending email: 17%.
  10. Shopping: 16%.

"Ultimately, voice has the potential to transform the way we approach our interactions with personal technology and brands. Nearly three in five users told us they believe voice will better meet their needs in the next five years," wrote Mark Webster, Adobe's Director of Product, in a blog post.

Adobe Voice Technology Study, July 2019
Source: Adobe Voice Technology Study, July 2019

However, the were people who complaint about the accuracy and comprehension of voice assistants, with respondents saying that voice recognition technology can only accurately responds to a question or command 69% of the time.

Voice assistants' accuracy and/or lack of comprehension were the top complaints among users (83%). The second top complaints regard privacy (81%). Following them, include: user experience challenges and other issues.

Most said that they wouldn’t use voice assistants for complex tasks like personal banking (61%) or booking travel (52%).

With Adobe's findings, the company showed that the adoption of voice technology in 2019 continues to surge, with assistants like Google Assistants and Amazon Alexa becoming more common in people's everyday lives.

Previously, Adobe found that a whopping 91 percent of brands are already making significant investments in voice, with .71 percent of those brands see voice as improving the user experience.