“Siri, is it going to rain?” “Alexa, search for restaurants in the area!” “Cortana, wake me up at seven!” Although still with a relatively long way to go, especially in Europe due to the linguistic issue, digital voice assistants (DVAs) are becoming more and more part of our daily lives.
The voice is progressively our privileged interface with our smartphones and computers (and we’re not even talking about smart home gadgets here!). And, undoubtedly, brands, especially digital ones, must pay particular attention to this phenomenon. According to a 2018 Accenture study on digital consumers, 21 percent of US respondents own a standalone digital voice assistant device and an additional 28 percent plan to buy one in the next year.
At the same time, the same study by Accenture proceeds, “The shift from browser search to DVA search could have massive economic consequences. In today’s market, search drives the vast majority of online advertising revenue.” In other words, in order to remain visible and relevant, brands will have to strategically think of this disruptive phenomenon and sharpen their DVA platforms sooner rather than later – to improve their consumers’ voice navigation experiences. Otherwise, their offer will hardly reach their audiences.