How Voice Interfaces Speak To The Future Of Business

As the founder of VUI for business software, I’ve been keeping an eye on voice interfaces, or VUI, recently. I believe it speaks to the future of business. The amazing part about VUI is how it gets integrated into each industry. It’s already here in the consumer world. From Siri to Cortana, from Alexa to Google Assistant, we’re all barking orders into our devices. In 2015, Gartner estimated that “30% of our interactions with technology will be through 'conversations' with smart machines by 2018.”

And according to research firm eMarketer, the number of Americans using a voice assistant device is forecast to grow 129% to 36 million this year. And why not? The benefits are fantastic -- from the speed of the interaction and its results to the ease of use.

Voice interface technology is fast becoming all-pervasive -- from the aforementioned technologies to talking cars, talking fridges and talking furniture. Big companies are already working together to make voice interfaces multi-platform friendly. Look at Microsoft and Amazon forming a partnership to better integrate Cortana and Alexa -- and, according to a 2017 Amazon press release, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is looking at working with other intelligent agent companies. Bezos has already partnered with Logitech, meaning you can use Alexa in any Ford, Volkswagen or Volvo.

Of course, not every company wants to partner with the big ones. According to TechCrunch, Roxy, a startup with money to spend, made the decision to invest in its own voice interface technology -- proof that some wish to keep a control over customer interactions. Cisco did the same with their Cisco Spark Assistant, and there are plenty of other examples.

The tipping point isn’t here yet but it’s coming. For example, many players in this field can’t extend past single-threaded conversations into multithreaded ones. But that will change in time as more work is done. Start figuring out how and where voice interfaces can help your business.

Take Liberty, a luxury retailer. They now use voice interfaces to aid with warehouse picking. Their staff is given headsets with microphones. They work with the system to both pick the right products and let the system know what needs to be replaced. But there are much bigger implications for sales. Say a consumer is alerted by Alexa that their insurance is expiring soon. The consumer, who may have once been brand loyal, may ask Alexa for the cheapest alternatives.

There are issues with voice interfaces to be sure. Synonyms, lack of context and even background noise can interfere with voice commands. Some consumers are wary of privacy invasion -- even more so since the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. Companies that develop voice interfaces need to be as transparent as possible with consumers if they wish to overcome that very real hurdle.

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