Decades ago, talking to a computer was only possible in advanced scientific labs or in science fiction stories. Today, voice assistants have become a reality of everyday life. People talk to their phone, smart speaker, doorbell, and even microwave oven. Voice is gradually becoming one of the main ways to interact with consumer applications and devices and the use of our natural language as a mode of interaction is extremely appealing. Software like text to speech (TTS), automatic speech recognition (ASR), and Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) are used to recognize and process human language.

But while we’ve seen a lot of progress in the application of voice interfaces like google assistant or Siri in consumer applications, the business sector still lags behind, even though enterprises can be the main beneficiaries of advances in speech recognition and overall interactive voice technology. Where workers are engaged in hands-on activities and can’t interact with graphical user interfaces, voice user interfaces can make a huge difference in user engagement, productivity, and safety. However, the enterprise voice sector must overcome several challenges, one of them being privacy and security concerns. Today’s consumer voice assistants are not renowned for being very privacy friendly. There have been several documented incidents of smart speakers and voice assistants mistakenly recording conversations and replaying them elsewhere. And the massive user data that these assistants collect gets sucked into the black hole of the data-hungry tech giants that run them.

The expansion of the voice interface to your living room, car, office, pocket, and wrist has created fierce competition between tech giants. Manufacturers of smartphones, smart speakers, wearable devices and other mobile devices aim to create the ultimate voice experience that can respond to every possible query, whether it’s asking the weather, turning on the lights, responding to emails, or setting timers. Currently, the only way speech api vendors can get ahead of competitors is to improve their AI models by expanding their repertoire of actionable voice commands. This puts them in a position to have a vested interest to collect more user data and assemble larger training datasets for their AI models.

What’s also worth noting is that all major consumer voice assistants are owned by companies that  have built their business on collecting user information and creating digital profiles to serve ads, provide content and product recommendations, and keep users locked in their apps. In this regard, voice interfaces become another window for these companies to collect more data and know more about their users.

This brings us to an important takeaway: Tech giants will do anything they can to own your data because that is their key differentiating factor.

From a security and privacy standpoint, this causes several key concerns:

– These intermediaries will get to hear private conversations of enterprises’ users. For instance, if you allow a consumer voice assistant to check on your bank balance, you’re giving them access to this sensitive information.

– You don’t know what kind of data is being collected and where it is stored.

– Data is stored centrally in the servers of the voice AI provider. And as numerous security incidents have shown, centralized stores of data are attractive targets for malicious actors.

– As an enterprise, you have no ownership or control of your data and can’t use it to improve your products or gain insights about how users interact with your applications.

– In case you’re handling sensitive health, financial, or business data, you’re at the mercy of the Voice AI vendor to keep your data safe and not share it with third parties.

On the other hand, the Alan Platform is designed to ensure security and privacy for users of the enterprises and organizations. The key privacy tenet of the Alan platform is that each enterprise is the sole owner of their user conversations data. They decide where it is stored and who has access to it. And regardless of a customer’s choice for where to store their data, Alan AI secures this data, making sure it’s encrypted in transit and at rest. Not only does this model create more value for businesses in comparison to the classic voice AI platform, but it also addresses the key privacy and security pain points that organizations face when considering voice interfaces for their applications.

The Alan platform is based on solving specific problems for each enterprise, not answering every possible query in the world. Each deployment of our AI system will be tuned for one or more applications of a single enterprise.

The value of the Alan Platform does not come from creating digital profiles and selling ads and products to users, therefore there’s no incentive to collect, hoard, and monetize user data. Instead, Alan AI seeks success by creating value and helping businesses reduce costs, improve operational efficiencies and safety with employee facing deployments, and increase revenue acceleration for the customer facing deployments.

The goal is to increase ROI for businesses by deploying voice interfaces for apps being used by their customers and employees. This is why Alan AI believes every company should have full control and ownership of their data and AI models to provide the required privacy for their users. An added benefit is that the AI of each customer will improve as it continues to interact with the users of its application, and the business will have a chance to glean actionable insights from its data and develop new features and products.

Having access to the right quality and amount of data can give an enterprise the edge in providing a higher quality voice interface. Therefore, every enterprise should put data ownership and security at the center of its product innovation strategy. Will you prefer to use the technology of a company that works behind a black box, taking control and ownership of your data and not providing clear safeguards, or do you prefer to be in control of your data and work in a secure environment where you can continuously innovate and improve the voice interface of your products? If you’re in the latter camp,  the Alan Platform is for you. At Alan, we believe the future is a human voice interface to app. 

Reach out to sales@alan.app to set up a free private demo of the platform or answer any questions that you may have about the technology.

Intelligent voice interfaces for apps have become ubiquitous. From making calls to purchases, the use cases are explosive. Its use in educational institutions as a learning aid is yet to reach its full potential, but we are certain it is on the right track and can revolutionize the way students are educated. Given the hybrid learning trend, remote learning intertwined with the physical classroom, the challenge is to keep the student engaged and learning, regardless of the environment they are in.

To achieve critical education outcomes, it is important to focus on both technology and 21st century skills. Voice-based learning is an aid that includes a broad range of tools and enables a blended learning model- augmenting the learner’s experience and help educators with their teaching methodologies.

Voice tech applications are getting smarter over time with advances in artificial intelligence and their application in voice technology. Instructors  can simply ask their app “How many students submitted their homework assignment?”, “Who was absent in class today?”, “What are the instructions for today’s science fair?”, “ Summarize the progress of student Andy Jacobs” etc. Voice interfaces enable applications to give the right answer, faster.

Let us look at what makes voice technology a terrific aid in classrooms:

1. Collecting data in real-time:

Voice enabled devices are great at collecting data in real-time. Using them, teachers can record students’ engagement in class, monitor participation, attendance, etc. This is a productivity tool for teachers as they can just speak to the app instead of tedious touch and type. Moreover, built in artificial intelligence and analytics capabilities empower the instructor with data analysis and real-time insights. This empowers the instructor to quickly tackle situations that need a bias for action. 

2. Academic tracking and feedback:

The academic progress of students can be tracked over a period of time using voice interfaces. It can be done at scale for every student in the institution. It can also remind students about what is expected of them regarding assignments, deadlines, subjects they have enrolled in, etc. The institution can also use voice interfaces to deliver personalized feedback and constant updates on what is happening in the classrooms. Timely feedback on student performance is an important mechanism for management of academic outcomes- voice tech can definitely be used to accomplish this.

3. Communal learning:

When using voice interfaces, everyone in the classroom hears the same information uniformly without any bias. The students can maintain eye contact without looking down at the computer screen. The teachers also don’t have to break eye contact with the students, thereby helping build a closer rapport with the students.  

4. Accessing records:

Accessing student record details quickly is often difficult, even if you use a student information system. Voice interfaces make this an easy process as they are adept at large data sets. For example, if a teacher wants targeted information about a student, all they need to do is ask the app. It will share the information as soon as the question is asked. It is not just limited to academic records as educational institutions can get their entire data that was input into the system.

5. Personalizing learning:

Thanks to the human-like features of a voice interface, it makes learning more personal and humane for the students. Students will find it easy to follow instructions from voice interfaces because of their ability to express a wide range of emotions and voice modulations. Also, personalization means accommodating different learning styles of a student body and making some adjustments to fit their unique needs.

6. Introducing routine learning exercises:

Institutions can use voice assistants to introduce routine learning exercises such as learning words, memorizing spellings and facts, learning common phrases from foreign languages, etc. The use of voice as an aid for this is definitely a time saver for the teacher. Such methods can also positively drive engagement of students, as the voice can be blended with music to make it more appealing.

7. Customizing tests:

Voice technology can be customized according to the needs of the student. It can come with a bunch of ready-made templates that the teacher can choose from, on a whim. Moreover, a teacher can use different templates to match the diverse student personas in a classroom.

8. Storytelling:

We all love stories. Voice interfaces can be used to read stories to students. It could be specific to the subjects that are being taught or for the pure joy of listening to a story. It keeps the students engaged, but it also gives an opportunity for the teachers to rest. Interactive stories with engaging plot lines as a mode of instruction can help the student perform much better in classrooms. 

9. Controlling the environment:

Teachers can use voice interfaces to control the classroom by setting the tone with instructions. These can be repeated and also modified rapidly to inform students in the classroom on protocols for learning sessions, tests, and any special announcements.

In summary, Voice interfaces can be used to deliver an immersive learning experience and make learning more attractive to both student and instructor. They are a useful aid to the institution to deliver the right education at the right time to the right student.

The team at Alan AI will be more than happy to assist you with any questions or provide a personalized demo of our intelligent voice interface  platform. Just email us at sales@alan.app

About Alan AI:

Alan’s voice interface leverages the user context and existing UI of applications, a key to understanding responses for next-gen human voice conversations. Alan AI has patent protections for its unique contextual Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) technology to accurately recognize and understand human voice, within a given context. Alan’s SLU transcoder leverages the context to convert voice directly to meaning by using raw input from speech recognition services, imparting the accuracy required for mission-critical enterprise deployments and enabling human-like conversations, rather than robotic ones. Voice based interactions, coupled with the ability to allow users to verify the entered details without having the system to reiterate inputs, provides an unmatched end-user experience.

The evolution of Web 3.0 is fundamentally to create a more transparent, intelligent, and open internet for creators and users to share value, bringing back control of the internet from big technology players into the palm of the users.

Gavin Wood coined the term “Web 3.0” in 2014, laying out his vision of the future of the internet. Web 3.0 is underpinned by blockchain technology– to decentralize data and distribute it across devices- while reducing risks of massive data leaks by eliminating a central point of failure. 

By implementing artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with blockchain technology, Web 3.0 aims to redefine the web experience with structural changes for decentralization, democratization, and transparency in all facets of the internet.

Features of Web 3.0 include: 

The Semantic Web: A web of linked data, combining semantic capabilities with NLP to bring “smartness” to the web for computers to understand information much like humans, interpreting data by identifying it, linking it to other data, and relating it to ideas. The user can leverage all kinds of available data that allow them to experience a new level of connectivity.

Customization: Web personalization refers to creating a dynamic, relevant website experience for users based on behavior, location, profile, and other attributes.Web 3.0 is all about providing users with a more personalized experience within a secure and transparent environment.

Trust: Web 3.0’s decentralization promotes more transactions and engagement between peers. Users can trust the technology(blockchain) to perform many tasks in lieu of trusting humans for services such as contracts and transfer of ownership. Trust is implicit and automatic — leading to the inevitable demise of the middleman.

Ubiquity: IoT is adding billions of devices to the Web. That means billions of smart, sensor driven devices, being used by billions of users, by billions of app instances. These devices and apps consistently talk to each other, exchanging valuable data.

Voice Interface: A voice interface is expected to be a key element of Web 3.0, driving interactions between humans to devices to apps. One of the pivotal changes underway in technology today is the shift from user-generated text inputs to voice recognition and voice-activated functions. 

Some of the technologies used in creating voice interfaces include:

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology transcribes user speech at the system’s front end. By tracking audio signals, spoken words convert to text.  

Text to speech (TTS). A voice-enabled device will translate a spoken command into text, execute the command, and prepare a text reply. A TTS engine translates the text into synthetic speech to complete the interaction loop with the user.

Natural Language Understanding (NLU) determines user intent at the back end.

Both ASR and NLU are used in tandem since they typically complement each other well for all text chat bots but not for voice interfaces. Voice has a lot of noice, accents and highly contextual on what we see at the moment and here Alan AI has developed a Global Spoken Language Understanding Model for Apps for Spoken Language Understanding (SLU)

Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) technology understands and learns the nuances of spoken language in context, to deliver superior responses to questions, commands, and requests. It is also a discovery tool that can help and guide users with human-like conversational voice through any workflow process. When taking the needed leap to classify and categorize queries, SLU systems collect better data and personalize voice experiences. Products then become smarter and channel more empathy, empowered to anticipate user needs and solve problems quickly. Exactly in tune with the intent of Web 3.0.

The Alan AI platform is a SLU-based B2B Voice AI platform for developers to deploy and manage Voice Interfaces for Enterprise Apps- deployment is a matter of days, for any application. 

Alan’s voice interface leverage the user context and existing UI of applications, a key to understanding responses for next-gen human voice conversations. 

Alan has patent protections for its unique contextual Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) technology to accurately recognize and understand human voice, within a given context. Alan’s SLU transcoder leverages the context to convert voice directly to meaning by using raw input from speech recognition services, imparting the accuracy required for mission-critical enterprise deployments and enabling human-like conversations, rather than robotic ones. Voice based interactions, coupled with the ability to allow users to verify the entered details without having the system to reiterate inputs, provides an unmatched end-user experience.

As product manager, your job is to constantly look for ways to improve your application, delight your customers, and resolve pain points. And in this regard, voice interfaces provide a unique opportunity to secure and expand your app’s position in the market where you compete.

Voice assistants are not new. Siri is now ten years old. But the voice interface market is nearing a turning point, where advances in artificial intelligence and mobile computing are making them a ubiquitous part of every user’s computing experience.

By giving multimodal interfaces to applications, voice assistants bring the user experience closer to human interactions. They also provide app developers with the opportunity to provide infinite functionality, an especially important factor for small-screen mobile devices and wearables. And from a product management perspective, voice interfaces enable product teams to iterate fast and add new features at a very fast pace.

However, not all voice interfaces are made equal. The first generation of voice interfaces, which made their debut on mobile operating systems and smart speakers, are limited in the scope of benefits they can bring to applications. Absence of cross-platform support, privacy concerns, and lack of contextual awareness make it very difficult to integrate these voice platforms into applications. Otherwise put, they have been created to serve the needs of their vendors, not app developers. 

Meeting these challenges is the vision behind the Alan Platform, an intelligent voice interface that has been created from ground up with product integration in mind. The Alan Platform provides superior natural language processing capabilities thanks to deep integration with your application, which enables it to draw contextual insights from various sources, including voice, interactions with application interface, and business workflows. 

Alan Platform works across all web and mobile operating systems and is easy to integrate with your application, requiring minimal changes to the backend and frontend. Your team doesn’t need to have any experience in machine learning or technical knowledge of AI to integrate the Alan Platform and use it in your application.

The Alan Platform is also a privacy- and security-friendly voice assistant. Every Alan customer gets an independent instance of the Alan Server, where they have exclusive ownership of their data. There is no third-party access to the data, and the server instance lives in a secure cloud that complies with all major enterprise-grade data protection standards.

Finally, Alan AI has been designed for super-fast iteration and infinite functionality support. The Alan Platform comes with a rich analytics tool that enables you to have fine-grained, real-time visibility into how users interact with your voice interface and graphical elements, and how they respond to changes in your application. Alan’s voice is a great source for finding current pain-points, testing hypotheses, and drawing inspiration for new ideas to improve your application.

Please send a note to sales@alan.app to get access to the white paper on “why voice should be part of your 2022 digital roadmap” and find out what the Alan Platform can do for you and how our customers are using it to transform the user experience of their applications.

To be entered into the competition, click on the link here to register. In the meantime, here are some video we’ve created for you to check out:

• Alan AI Overview
• How to Build a Voice Assistant

Hope you enter the competition. Best of luck!

In the meantime, please check out this course we designed for you. If you send in a submission of your project, let us know and we’ll provide a free code for the course.

If you would like to learn more about Alan AI in general or have any questions, please feel free to book a meeting with one of our Customer Success team members here.

Click here to download your free white-paper on how privacy and security should be handled with Voice UX.

Cyber security is a table stakes for any successful app, but how does this translate to new Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) technologies, like Voice UX? 

No company refuses being on the cutting edge of technology, but undiscovered vulnerabilities pose a large threat that drives most wannabe innovative decision makers into forgoing the newest tech. Fortunately, this is not a showstopper for forward-thinking products like Alan AI. We’ve formulated a framework on how we protect our users’ privacy through our data collection, processing and storing standard procedures.

Read our whitepaper, Privacy & Security for Smart Apps on the Alan Platform, to learn how smart apps can best protect their users.

Forward-looking businesses are starting to explore the possibilities of introducing voice control into their applications. Therefore, we are seeing a noticeable increase in Android apps with voice-operated software that provide a hands-free experience.

We’ve gathered some of the most popular and useful hands-free apps for Android to see what they can offer and why other businesses should be heading in that direction as well.

The term “hands-free” refers to equipment or software that requires limited or no use of hands. One of the most popular ways to access controls for hands-free apps is through voice. The main goal is to make sure all users can use features within the app – regardless of their ability to physically operate the device.

Voice is being integrated into all kinds of devices, and it’s reshaping the usual state of things. Here are a few reasons why making your application hands-free is a good idea, business-wise and in general:

• Convenience – Hands-free apps can be used anywhere: while driving, doing chores around the house, carrying things, or when you’re simply far away from the device.
• Accessibility – These apps can be operated by people with limited hand mobility, those who are visually impaired, and other groups in need of assistive technology.
• Time efficiency – In many situations, making a quick call takes less time than typing a lengthy message and waiting for a response. The same principle applies to voice control; it requires no clicks, no typing, or any other time-consuming actions. 
• Simplicity – Users don’t have to be familiar with the interface to handle it. Unlike traditional apps, you hardly need any computer literacy or technical skills.
• Multi-use – Voice control isn’t strictly tied to one function. This kind of software is incredibly versatile in terms of potential applications.

Hands-free technology is particularly useful in countries where it’s illegal to use a handheld mobile phone when you drive. These laws have been adopted in many jurisdictions around the world, which gave developers another incentive to develop the technology.

The market of hands-free applications is an interesting space right now. Let’s look at the best offerings available in the Play Store for Android users.

1. Google Assistant

Google Assistant is considered an undisputed champion of personal assistant apps developed for Android. Although it may not work on every device, the coverage is extensive. In addition to running the app on your phone, you can also integrate with smart devices such as Philips Hue lights.

The assistant can run basic functions like making calls, sending texts, emails, setting alarms and reminders, etc. On top of that, you can look up weather reports and news updates, send web searches, and play music. The range of features is constantly getting updated and expanded.

The company states the app was originally designed for people with disabilities and conditions like Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. However, it should come in useful for anyone who’s multitasking or has their hands full. To activate Google Assistant, users need to say “OK Google,” and it will be all ears.

2. Amazon Alexa

Amazon Alexa has pushed the trend of endless integration with many emerging smart home devices to the forefront. Contrary to popular belief, this service runs not only on Amazon Echo but also on mobile devices. 

Alexa for Android is mostly used to control integrated devices. But the functionality also supports web searches, playing music, and even ordering deliveries. If you want to launch the hands-free app, say “Alexa” and it will be ready to hear commands whether the screen is on or off. 

The device restrictions are by far the biggest downside of Amazon Alexa. So far, there is a limited number of mobile phones supporting this system. However, in terms of its abilities and intelligence, it rightly occupies the top of the list.

3. Bixby

Bixby is a relatively new addition, but it is already among the best. It’s important to mention that it’s only compatible with Samsung devices. The company may be looking into other platforms, but at this point, it only runs on devices and appliances connected to Samsung’s proprietary hub.

The app can accomplish a variety of tasks – from sending text messages and responding to basic questions to activating other applications in the device (dialer, settings menus, camera app, contacts list, and gallery). 

One of the greatest benefits of Bixby is that it adapts to the user’s voice and manner of speaking. From the get-go, it can understand different request variations like “Show me today’s weather,” “What’s the weather like?” or “What’s the forecast for today?” and it only gets smarter with time.

4. Dragon

Powered by Nuance, which is the technology behind Siri, Dragon Mobile has been in operation for many years. Essential functionality includes dictating emails, checking traffic and weather, sharing your location, and a lot more. 

There are also many customizable features aimed at simplifying how you live, work, and spend leisure time – all while minimizing touch-based interactions. Users can add their unique and personalized Nuance Voiceprint. Then, voice biometrics will only let a designated user talk and ask questions.

You can also set your own wake-up word. Unlike other services, this one gives you options to launch it with “Hi, Dragon”, “What’s up,” or anything else you like. The company is working on adding languages other than English, as well as support for the international market. 

5. Hound

While the apps described above cover the most widely used basic functionalities, Hound takes a step further. Along with doing simple searches, it can accomplish advanced tasks such as hotel booking, a sing/hum music search, looking up stocks, or even calculating a mortgage. On a lighter side, you can play interactive games like Hangman. 

The company launched partnerships with Yelp and Uber to make features like getting restaurant information and hailing a ride more precise. Another interesting feature is that it can translate whole sentences practically in real-time. 

This speech-based app is only available for United States residents. However, the process of getting the app out of beta and ready for public consumption was pretty quick, so we may see some international development. Also, there are still occasional bugs within the app. 

6. Robin

Robin has been around for a while as one of the original “Siri alternatives”. Like its counterparts, the app supports calling, sending messages, and providing the latest information on the weather, news, and more. However, the functionality still needs some work.

Intentionally or not, a lot of features available on Robin are related to car use. For example, it offers GPS navigation, gives live traffic updates, and shows the prices for gas directly on the map. You can even specify what kind of gas you need, and it will guide towards the closest station.  

To call the app into action, you can tap on the microphone button, say “Robin,” or just wave hello twice in front of your phone (which is quite a unique innovation).

7. AIVC

AIVC stands for Artificial Intelligent Voice Control. It comes in two versions: free, which contains a number of ads, and Pro. The former option covers basic functionality, whereas the Pro one provides some appealing features like TV-Receiver control, wake up mode, and others. You can control devices that are accessible over a web interface with your own preset commands.

As far as voice commands go, the app gives you the option to define specific phrases to invoke a certain action. This is done to minimize the risk of the app not understanding what you want.

AIVC performs actions on other websites and services so you can compose emails, make Facebook posts, or move over to a navigation app.

8. DataBot

DataBot is one of the simpler Android Personal assistants. You can play around with it, ask for jokes and riddles, or do other goofy stuff, but it can actually be pretty useful for various tasks. You can ask the bot to make searches online, schedule events, and make calls by just using your voice.  

It is a cross-platform application so you can sync it across all your devices: smartphones, tablets, and laptops. That way, you get a coherent, all-around hands-free experience. Also, DataBot gains experience while you’re using it. 

A slight inconvenience that DataBot has is that it comes with ads and in-app purchases. If you aren’t bothered by that, it should be a good addition to your daily routine.

9. Car Dashdroid

Car Dashdroid includes everything you could possibly need while driving – navigation, music, contacts, messages, voice commands, and more. It is also integrated with popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger.

What makes this app stand out as a specifically car-oriented solution is that it comes with a compass, speedometer, and plenty of other features. 

There are also customization blocks that help you arrange all tasks based on their priority. For example, if you mostly use the app for navigation, you can put it at the top. Then, you can place music control below navigation, and the list of frequently contacted people at the bottom. 

10. Drivemode

Drivemode is a simple app meant to assist users while they’re driving. Users can select from their preferred navigation app (for example, Google Maps, Waze, and HERE Maps). You can also input favorite destinations (such as home, work, and so on), play music from multiple supported apps, and access messages in a low-distraction “driving mode” overlay with audio prompts. 

Even though it’s not entirely hands-free, there is a function that presents shortcuts that you can access through tapping or swiping. Drivemode can also be integrated with Google Assistant, so the functionality can potentially be extended way beyond driving assistance.

Integrating a Hands-Free Experience with Alan

Voice AI offers immense benefits for businesses – from completing tasks more quickly to offering better user experience with verbal communication. You can add unique voice conversations, no matter the industry you’re in. The Alan platform allows you to implement hands-free, interactive functionality in your existing application with ease. 

Co-founder and CEO of Alan Ramu Sunkara, sat down to talk about how Alan and Incture are bringing the world’s first conversational voice experience to field asset management.

Together, Incture and Alan have deployed touchless mobile field asset management in the Energy industry with the Murphy Oil IOP application for Oil Well operations. This solution is now a finalist for the 2020 SAP Innovation Award.

Touchless, Conversational Voice in mobile applications make it easy and safe for employees to enter operations data while on the go. The solution uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to recognize unique terms
and phrases specific to Oil Well operations with Alan’s proprietary Language Understanding Models.

After the introduction of the Conversational Voice User Experience, employees adoption and engagement with their mobile applications increased. This led to an increase in revenue, productivity, and operational effectiveness. As a result of this deployment, Murphy Oil was able to get complete real time visibility into their production operations and make informed business decisions quickly.

Field Asset Management Operations can benefit with hands-free:

• Check-ins when employees start work
• Task management
• Communication to other employees in the field using voice comments
• Onboarding for new employees on proper procedures and protocol
• Training for existing employees on new processes

Learn more about the Incture and Alan Touchless Mobile solution for Murphy Oil here.

Voice is in its infancy stage but quickly becoming the way we interact with our devices daily. The majority of voice usage comes from the big platform’s own applications and devices: Siri, Google Assistant, and the Amazon Echo device. More and more consumers have adopted voice, now on over 1B devices and the fastest growing interface ever. Voice is coming into the mainstream, however, there are a few flaws that prevent it from becoming ubiquitous as an interface: 

• Companies must rebuild and recreate their existing functionality and branding for voice usage, requiring heavy investment in their chosen assistant, beit Alexa, Siri, or Google.
• User context is lost after a few commands, where thousands of skills compete for a broad set of commands from users.  
• Many multi-step voice conversations on these devices aren’t purely voice enabled — users have to go back to using touch and type with several Siri and Google Assistant skills.
• Privacy and Security are lacking: employees from the big platform’s listen and expose user data to gain a competitive edge in Machine Learning technology. Companies don’t own the IP of what they create.

Demonstration of how developers will monetize their voice apps is also a problem. Currently the big platforms provide rewards to app developers based on their app’s monthly user engagement, as they build the market and find a way to long term monetization.
Enterprises are creating voice apps on these platforms with limited control of the experience, data, and technical investment. Despite this, voice is an important part of the future. The difficulties posed for enterprises will be eliminated. The future of voice is coming.

Voice assistants have been finding their way into our daily lives. Among at home voice-enabled speaker devices, Amazon has taken a 70% market foothold and sold over 25 million units, while Google trails behind at 23.8% market share and selling 5 million units. These devices, along with their mobile counterparts Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant, have pushed voice into the mainstream, making consumers more comfortable using them as a hands-free way of getting things done.

Still, only 46% of U.S. adults use voice assistants, with the most frequent use cases being playing music, setting alarms, and checking the weather. The remaining 54% of U.S. adults say they don’t use voice assistants simply because they are not interested. And it’s no wonder, as several of the most common use cases for voice can easily be achieved with a few taps on the phone — not to mention Siri and Google’s command and response can be easily bungled, taking more time than just tapping through to the desired app.

Each tech giant is using their own strengths to approach the advantages voice enables: Amazon’s Echo is used for shopping, Apple is launching their own Home Pod early 2018, which doubles down on music, and Google is optimizing their own Home device for search. So far, Amazon seems to be the only one to deliver on the advantages of voice, letting consumers say something as simple as “Amazon order X”, which automatically completes the order and has the items shipped.

Traditional User Interfaces are complex, and completing tasks or performing a search is time-consuming. With voice, tasks can be completed in only a few words. Today for example, if you wanted to find the recent changes to a document, you would first have to open your docs app, search for the document, open it, then click on a separate button to view the recent changes. With voice, you could simply say “Are there any recent changes to the document?” and the result will be spoken back to you.

At work, we often use business applications that require training and practice to use effectively within our organization. These products help us solve complex problems, but shouldn’t require us to jump through hoops. As Steve Jobs said, “the computer is the bicycle for the mind”. Our software at work should be intelligent to help us go faster, not slow us down. With voice, we’ll be able to go faster with less effort. This is the future of voice we’re building at Alan.