If you haven’t tried Siri, Alexa or Google voice lately, it’s time to try it again. Voice recognition technology has come a long way in recent years.
Prior to NLP (Natural Language Processing) to search the Internet using Google you had to structure the right keywords with Boolean search terms like AND, OR and NOT. Now we can simply ask the question and an algorithm has learned to understand the relationship between words. At the same time, speech recognition has been improved which means devices are more likely to understand nuances such as slang, accents, and a specific person's voice.
These developments have provided a gateway into the adoption of voice activated systems. Gartner estimates that 30% of our interactions with technology will be through conversations with smart machines by the end of this year. One in six US adults (or around 39 million people) now own a voice-activated smart speaker, according to researchers. The Smart Audio Report claims that uptake of these devices over the last three years is “outpacing the adoption rates of smartphones and tablets.”
Beyond the home, businesses are now starting to adopt voice-first service which is leveraging voice technology for faster and less expensive customer interactions with better or similar results as interacting with employees. How is your business using or thinking about implementing voice-first service?
Now is the time to Invent the Future!
While smart devices save us time and money, with every triumph comes a challenge. As people adopt more and more smart devices, they need an effective solution to manage them.
Voice picking, also commonly known as voice-directed warehousing (VDW), pick by voice, and speech-based picking, is a paperless, hands-free, and eyes-free system that employs easy-to-understand voice prompts to direct warehouse operators. VDW improves picking efficiency and accuracy.
While we're still relatively early in the adoption of digital assistants, "voice-first will be coming," according to OV CEO Will Graylin. He sees a world where more phones are in pockets and people are more willing to use their voice to ask for the things they want.
Speech recognition is a critical technological component to efficiency in business and in daily life. Implementing a speech recognition system into your business processes will improve operations and boost interactions with your customer base.