It’s clear that voice user interfaces are giving brands a revolutionary way of communicating with customers. Allowing brands to develop deeper relationships with their customers, these Internet Of Things products combine the real-time aspect of cutting edge technology with one of the most primal communications known to the human race – voice.
- Invoca reported that 49% of millennials are looking down at their phone less after using a virtual assistant.
- Steve Rabuchin, VP of Amazon Alexa: “Our vision is that customers will be able to access Alexa whenever and wherever they want. That means customers may be able to talk to their cars, refrigerators, thermostats, lamps, and all kinds of devices in and outside their homes”.
Opportunities for marketers:
- Interacting with older generations that aren’t tech savvy.
- Interacting with disabled or visually impaired consumers.
- Allowing brands to break the consumer worry of smartphone usage and excessive screen-time.
- Connectivity of other smart devices, including thermostats, smart fridges, cars, etc.
- Many industry experts predict that voice technology will be integrated into every online application within the next 5 years.
What brands are doing:
Domino’s pizza has successfully created an “Amazon Skill” on platform Amazon Alexa, allowing customers to order a pizza with six simple words: “Alexa, ask Domino’s to feed me”.
Laundry Detergent brand “Tide” has also created an “Amazon Skill” giving customers real-time tips on removing stains.
The opportunities are endless during these early stages of voice user interfaces. With the global uptake of these Internet Of Things devices only set to increase, brands should take advantage of this experimental stage.
- Ray Wang Founder of Constellation Research: “They should get into it early to experiment and then see what the results are. Early adopters in early forms of media channels often reap disproportionate benefits vs. those who come late.”
How do you see brands connecting with customers through virtual assistants? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!
The Digital Dig 
I think a lot of brands will do something similar to what Dominos have done, to make it easier for consumers to purchase from them! Since consumers seem to be getting busier and busier, any form of aid in terms of purchasing and checking out quicker will probably help increase sales in the future. So voice control will definitely play a part in that I think! Great post Indi 🙂
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I personally would really love this sort of convenience from a brand and can see it being really useful for consumers! I’m interested to see how brands get creative with this as of course different brands will have to add value in different ways via voice search. Thanks so much Sheri!
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General pants is doing some amazing stuff I have noticed. Using a combination of AI and machine learning – basically you upload a picture of something you like or are looking for and the chatbot will reply with links to general pants products that are similar. Shopping made easy! Great post!
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Just read about this as well! Incredible stuff, I’m personally going to benefit a lot from this feature – convenient and fast shopping for the time restrained consumer. Thanks for reading 🙂
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Great post! I think what interests me the most if the ability for this to enable people with disabilities. I believe this provides convenience for the entire society, especially when machine learning and other predictive analysis tools start integrating together.
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I too thought this was an awesome feature of virtual assistants! I can’t wait to see where this technology is taken in the future, and the integration of predictive analysis. Our lives will be so much easier! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
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consumers are lazy i can testify. the introduction of virtual assistants into the market has been able to tap into this laziness and allow consumers to feel the sense of entitlement and worth by giving them their own personal “assistant”. however, after the facebook scandal in the past couple years with big data companies and their use of consumer data, it’s always in the back of my head. what do they listen to? and what are they going to do with this information?..
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A great point on privacy, Cam. After this scandal I too questioned the legitimacy of such huge corporations and their ability to keep our data safe. Hopefully in the future we will see developments in technology as well as in privacy measures! So long as companies invest as much time into their products as they do their privacy features, hopefully we’ll see some major improvements in how transparent such organisations can be. Otherwise I would also fear a lack of adoption in the market. This could be a great competitive advantage for a company like Google or Amazon – I would personally always choose the safest product, even if a few dollars more!
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Great post! It’s so cool to see such advancements in technology even over the last few years! I think we’ll definitely be seeing more and more use of this as well, as more brands get on board after seeing how successful others are! Thanks for the insightful read!
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I can’t wait for such technologies to advance! I personally would use these features everyday to get off my phone more and reduce screen time. Thanks for reading Meagan!
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I think this is most definitely the way of the future! It really is quite scary how powerful IOT is becoming, particularly how powerful it’s reach can be within our homes. I was reading how amazon is going into the pharmaceutical industry and is training “Alexa” to detect patterns in disease and sickness within households. This is so invasive in my opinion and blows my mind. What do you think about this?
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I think if it saved lives or created a better standard of living it would be really useful, and after consumers understand the overall benefit of such a feature, users would be more willing to adopt it. I can see how invasive it would seem though! Stringent privacy features must be in place to protect these users. Thanks for reading!
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Hmmmm…. very interesting, both interesting… and a touch spooky. I will be watching closely as the the role of AI in the household and in marketing grows.
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Thanks for stopping by, Armin! I too am interested to see how AI in homes becomes more prevalent.
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Great Post!
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Thanks Amanda!
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