The Voice Assistants Are Coming
Voice technology has been around a while. Siri was released as an app in 2010 and was the first modern digital virtual assistant, arguably the first known example to most people but voice-recognition goes all the way back to 1962. The IBM shoebox was launched, at about the size of a shoebox, it was equipped with 10 small lamps labeled 0 to 9 and speaking the name of the digit would cause the corresponding lamp to light up. From popular culture examples of voice recognition from KITT in Knightrider and R2D2 in Star Wars to voice-controlled gaming with the brilliantly badly planned Konami Laserscope and calling the bank to have your balance read to you in the 80s, the evolution of this technology to a practical, mainstream way has been slow. One reason could be the fear of the unknown and the difficulty of changing people's behaviours, skepticism around the boundaries of privacy or simply not having an offering that is beneficial and easy. It's likely a mix of all of these. And it's about to change in a big way. With Google Home, Amazon Echo, HomePod and the fantastically named LingLong DingDong hitting the shops, virtual assistants are being brought into homes. Finally. And why not? While body language may take the crown as the most important form of expression when speaking to other humans, speech is the go-to method we consciously choose. With non-humans on the receiving end, the potential for practical assistance is huge. It's not surprising how quickly getting a news update, skipping a song, adjusting the volume, asking a question and controlling the lights or temperature by requesting it becomes completely natural. We're just doing what we've always done; speaking. In a wider context, brands now need to consider not just what they look and feel like, and symbolise, but what they sound like too. Voice makes them more human. Consider the top five supermarkets in your area. Where would each one regionally come from? How would they sound? Do they range from old to young? Are they male or female? What are their attributes, assertive and authoritative, gentle and kind or something else? Who are its partners and affiliates? The virtual assistant could turn into a virtual friendship circle where you chat to Alexa about your reading list and fashion choices, ‘Margaret’ about your Waitrose shop, ‘Carl’ about your Nike+ fitness goals, Google about your news and ‘Daniel' about your Spotify music recommendations. This can be applied to anything, for example education and self-development and improvement. In an increasingly competitive world and professional market where we're overloaded with information every day, self-development is a must to not fall behind but it's also exhausting to fit it in. Virtual assistants open up the possibility of non-judgemental tutoring, coaching and mentoring, and doing courses during your commute or on the go. There are plenty of resources out there - the overload of information is not a bad thing, it's about making it work for you. With an accurate and reliable writing to speech and speech to writing service, you could have control of what to learn and when, and the ability to complete course work and give feedback too, maybe even with the voice of your choice. We’re not quite there yet but it’s not far away. A survey by JWT and Mindshare about voice technology asked people if they'd feel comfortable using voice in public and the majority said they wouldn't. What people say and what people do often differ. As long as it's conversational and natural, isn't it just like walking down the street and talking into your handsfree microphone as you would with a friend? Needless to say, I’m a fan and can't wait for voice technology to become truly integrated into my life.