Where will the voice assistant industry go?

Voice technology has made huge strides in the past decade, thanks to products like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. But the voice assistant industry has yet to reach its full potential, and it can become an integral part of many of the apps we use every day.

Nick MacShane, founder and senior managing director of business bank Progress Partners, said that in the next few years, we will see the emergence of new markets, new applications and new platforms for voice assistants , these will be beyond the capabilities of existing companies. Progress Partners provides M&A, financing and special purpose acquisition company advisory services to emerging technology and media companies.

In an interview with TechTalks, McShane discussed the future of the voice assistant industry and how innovative startups can make a mark in this expanding market.

Mass adoption of voice assistants

Voice assistants have been around for decades. But they didn't become widely available until Apple launched Siri in 2011. The market has been growing rapidly ever since. Microsoft and Amazon released Cortana and Alexa respectively in 2014. Google released its Assistant in 2016. Samsung released Bixby in 2017. Not all cell phones were equally successful, but they changed the way people used their phones.

More than 50% of American households now have smart speakers. An estimated 128 million people in the United States use voice assistants. Voice accounts for a significant portion of online searches, with over 50% of searches being for local businesses. Voice assistants are increasingly used in cars and other environments where users would rather not look at or interact with a screen.

What’s more, all of these numbers are growing year over year, which shows that acceptance and expectations for voice capabilities are increasing in both devices and applications. The growth of the voice assistant market is attributed to several factors: Advances in machine learning and deep learning have improved the accuracy of speech-to-text technology. Advances in natural language processing (NLP) and large language models make it possible to execute more complex commands. TinyML has moved speech reasoning from the cloud to the edge. Ubiquitous computing and internet connectivity have brought voice assistants into our pockets, wrists and living rooms.

Limitations of Current Voice Assistants

However, the expanding voice assistant market has also highlighted some shortcomings of existing companies.

“While voice assistants are one of the fastest growing consumer technologies ever, current use cases are relatively simple, like listening to music or setting a timer,” McShane said. "Over time, we expect that the complexity of user interactions with voice technology will increase."

As users' acceptance of voice technology increases, their expectations will also increase. They will want their voice assistant to help them with tasks that require multiple interactions or understanding of specialized areas. For example, McShane said users might want their TV to purchase a shirt that an actor wore on screen, or add items to their shopping cart while driving. In this case, the assistant should be able to gather information from multiple sources, rather than just mapping voice commands to actions.

“The technological advancements we’re seeing in voice will allow people to do more with their voice assistants and carry conversations from one smart speaker to another,” McShane said.

Platform-independent voice assistant

Another problem with current voice assistants is the lack of cross-platform support. Alexa is tied to Amazon, Siri is tied to Apple, and Assistant is tied to Google. This makes it difficult for developers to create voice applications that run on a user's various devices.

“Today, we are starting to see a greater diversity of voice assistants in use on the market. As new products become more popular, Amazon’s position as the largest market share leader is declining,” Mike Shaw En said. “With Amazon now having less than 50% of the market, the need for third-party support is higher than ever. ”

Basically, this means that if you’re developing an app, you have to figure out how to make it work with all types of voice assistants. Limiting support for Alexa or Siri will deprive a portion of the app’s users The convenience of using voice capabilities. This is a gap that a platform-agnostic voice assistant that works in various operating systems can fill.

“Brands don’t want to advertise, sell, or attract consumers on just one smart device By. They want to participate in the entire ecosystem, and third-party technology providers make that possible," McShane said. "By leveraging third-party technology providers, brands are able to deliver their messages across a diverse portfolio of voice assistants. They will create new opportunities that prioritize infrastructure, monetization, commerce, data and analytics in the voice technology market. "

Voice Assistant Platforms to Watch in the Future

McShane said: "We strongly believe in a voice-enabled future and we see opportunities in three key areas: commerce, advertising and connected TV. . ”

Progress Ventures, the investment arm of Progress Partners, has recently invested in several voice technology startups that MacShane believes will be part of the future of voice assistants.

One of them is Blutag, a cloud-based platform targeting voice commerce, a rapidly growing industry expected to reach $40 billion by 2022. Blutag provides code-free voice support for most major e-commerce platforms and offers a rich API for custom integration. Online store owners can add a variety of voice features, including purchases, coupons, and FAQs. The platform supports a variety of device types and multi-modal experiences. So, for example, if the user will be using a device with a display (e.g., a smart TV or a smartphone), the voice assistant will be able to pull information from different sources, including the user's voice data and the content displayed on the device's screen. Because Blutag is designed specifically for voice commerce, it can handle complex online purchases that general-purpose voice assistants can't handle, such as making multi-step purchases or using contextual data.

Instreamatic, another Progress Ventures portfolio company, offers voice advertising. Instreamatic enables companies to deliver conversational ads to users. Instreamatic's goal is to move from static ads to dynamic ads that provide users with a personalized experience.

Disruptel, the third company invested by Progress Ventures, offers an artificial intelligence voice assistant that can understand and interact with screen content. For example, if you're watching a movie, you can ask the Assistant for information about similar movies, actors shown on the screen, or specific items like the coat an actor is wearing. If you're watching a sports match, you can tell the Assistant to place a bet via your favorite betting platform.

McShane believes that this is just the beginning of the expansion of the voice experience, and more useful applications will be developed in the next few years.

“We believe voice as a format will only continue to grow. We are seeing an increase in the use of voice assistants across all ages, demographics and geographies,” he said. "As use of voice assistants continues to increase and technology continues to evolve, it's an exciting time to be entering the world of voice technology."

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