Some people are afraid of Artificial Intelligence (AI), fearing that it will end the human race. AI is far from that, but apparently, it has been slowly taking over our lives.
From Amazon Echo to Google Home, there are products which helped consumers in getting the information they want using speech. The trend is growing, and many more people are eager to get more enjoyment from 'speaking to gadget and get what they want'.
Here there is a shift in trend.
Slowly but steadily, consumers' satisfaction seems to have increased with voice-enabled technology. This is because AI has become more capable in recognizing human voice, better than ever before. This is the basic premise. Consumers will choose voice search over text-based queries, because of the most obvious reasons: it mimics our natural behavior.
Unlike picking up our smartphone and type something out to ask a search engine, for example, taking to a gadget seems to be a more casual thing to do.
Voice, The Substitute For Text
Talking is one of the most basic things humans can do. We learned how to speak since we were very young, besides crawling and talking.
What this means, voice technology can take its role as a substitute to the traditional text-based queries. For businesses, they can create potential communication between themselves and consumers, but in a more intimate manner. This can give brands a greater opportunity to reach more people, and match a query with a more relevant answer.
This is also because voice search is typically faster. Typing is certainly a pain, especially when you're doing something with one or both of your hands. But with voice, you just need to have talk. What's more, voice will flow questions and commands out more naturally.
For example, you may usually type something like: "find a restaurant near me." But with voice, you can just say: "I'm hungry."
The biggest problem about voice is that, it leads to a greater user disappointment. Let's say that you want to find something to eat. Using text-based queries, you see the screen of your smartphone, and scroll to the list of restaurants to pick one you want. But with voice, the screen-less interface means that search results must be narrowed down to a single or potentially the most relevant results that match the users' intention.
Speak More, Hear More, Type Less, See Less
The majority of users use voice command to do multitask. For example, asking Alexa to play music because both of their hands are busy cooking. Another typical behavior is to get instant answer to a short question. Like knowing how's the weather in a given place. Again, without having to unlock their smartphone and type, or focus on a single task at a single time.
So here, voice technology allows us to speak more and hear more, while at the same time, type less and see less. This is certainly a convenient to some extent.
What does this mean for advertisers and marketers? First of all, it would be more difficult for them to put their brands upfront their potential customers. Using voice, potential customers will only get the information they need, just like they want, without any added information which will ruin experience.
In this sense, voice technology would change how traditional search advertising work.
Voice-based recommendations may grow, but consumers will only respond to brands that promote their products or services at the right time. For example, if someone has bought something through Alexa, recommending products based on the customer data, like "you bought a laptop, you might like a wireless mouse."
Changing E-Commerce
Without looking at their screens, consumers won't need to use different channels and interface to make a purchase. They just need to say what they want, and go through the buying process and checkout, all through voice command.
This will certainly change the way e-commerce businesses work.
So, instead of apps, websites, and mobile responsive checkouts - brands should focus on creating a single interface where consumers can do it all in one go.
A Bias In Recommendations
Again not looking at screens, how would you know that a product you're about to buy, is the best that suits your needs, and also the cheapest?
When using Alexa to buy an item, for example. Amazon will respond with some suggestions, rather than providing a long list that people would usually get through regular text-based search. Here, Amazon has the potential to suggest users the products that are most expensive.
This bias is unfair, and it's certainly a disadvantage with it comes to doing something without seeing.
It's like asking someone to buy you groceries. It will be hard for the person to fetch everything you asked him/her, without having the detailed information. Humans are more flexible. But talking to AI with detailed information is something that is a lot more difficult, and also ruins experience.
For marketers, it poses some questions about how they can leverage their ranking in search, like SEO but for voice, so voice technology can recommend them.
What's more, without using screens, voice technology is driving what's called a "brand-less marketing." What this means, buyers won't consider the connection they have with brands when it comes to products they purchase.
They aim for convenience. And this voice convenience requires brands to promote themselves differently.
Security
Just like any form of technology that runs through the web, security is always a concern.
What information does voice technology collects? How long will they store that information? For what else rather than user profiling will the information be used? Does voice-activated technologies always listen? Or do they become deaf without the proper wake up word? Can they be hacked? How far can they encrypt voice command so privacy is kept secured, far from man-in-the-middle attacks?
Just like any text-based queries we type on search engines and e-commerce website. They are all collected to provide the information needed to craft unique answers to you only. Google is known to track users to understand intentions better. So as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and others that rely on user data.
Voice technology is the same thing, but working in a different frequency.