Voice is Huge, and Iterate is Smack in the Middle of It

Amazon, Apple, and Google are investing billions to ensure that we communicate with the Internet through our voice. The Voice Revolution has been called the biggest technology shift since Steve Jobs launched the iPhone.

Fortune Magazine reports that Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and others are putting money into competing voice products. Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster estimates “that the tech giants are spending a combined 10% of their annual research-and-development budgets, more than $5 billion in total, on voice recognition.”

The result? A monumental change for computing.

To help companies stay on top of the trend, Iterate’s team recently descended on the annual Voice Summit in New Jersey and wowed hackathon judges and execs alike. Iterate’s team built voice apps in just four hours during the hackathon using Iterate’s new Interplay software tool.

Interplay lets companies drag and drop software APIs together to instantly create new innovative voice applications, whether it’s shopping through voice on your mobile app or ensuring smooth customer service through voice bots on your website. READ MORE HERE.

Impact on Retail

Voice shopping, for instance, is expected to grow to $40 billion by 2022, up from $2 billion today.  About 13% of U.S. households have smart speakers today. Within three years, that number may jump to 55%, according to a report by OC&C Strategy Consultants. These users tend to be younger, wealthier and more likely to live in family households with children.

Voice obviously changes how people will shop online. But it also changes how customers find and interact with you, and develop a relationship with your brand. 

In the past, retailers relied on search engine optimization for customer connections. Traditional searches found websites through things like keywords and ranking by relevance.

The rise of voice search has spawned “answer engine optimization.” Marketers will need to configure their behind-the-scenes coding with semantic nuances and conversational tone voice search.

Looking ahead, it’s paramount that large brands create seamless, engaging customer experiences using voice. Retailers are quickly building apps and bots that embrace voice, allowing customers to speak directly to apps using Google or Amazon’s products. 

Starbucks added “Reorder app” to Alexa, for instance, so people can ask Alexa to place their usual order at the coffee chain.

Improvements in AI could enable deep personalization as well. Eventually, artificial intelligence will improve so much that an Echo device could analyze a person’s voice to determine if they are happy or bored. Based on the verbal cues, devices can personalize messages and experiences accordingly.

In Conclusion

Brands must stay on top of the voice trend. When a keyword is mentioned by a customer on an Alexa device, successful companies will rise to the top. The right voice tools in their omnichannel networks will capture customer attention and help them race ahead of the competition.

Find out more about how Iterate’s Voice Powered AI now.