VoiceBot/Voice Assistant: The Future of Technology

According to an estimate, approximately half of all online queries will be voice searches. A voice-bot enters the pictures at precisely this point, handling a voice-based search. We’ve been using voice-bots for quite some time now, such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana. All the personal digital assistant are voice-bots by nature.

What is a Voicebot?

A voice-bot is a chat-bot whose primary mode of communication with the user is the voice. The less you have to type; the more efficient is the voice-bot.

There are two broad types of voice-bots, text-based voice-bots, and input-based voice-bots. Text-based voice-bots take input in text format and may provide output in text or voice format, as commanded by the user. On the other hand, input-based voice-bots take input in a variety of formats like text, image, and voice. Input-based voice-bots may provide results in a voice-based or text-based format. A premier example of input-based voice-bot is Google Assistant, which accepts inputs in various forms and narrates the result for the user by default.

Why’s a Voicebot Important?

According to the Capgemini Conversational Commerce Report 2019, among all organizations that adopted voice and chat initiatives,

• 76% have realized quantifiable benefits from the initiatives.
• 58% admit that the benefits received met or exceeded their expectations.
• Benefits usually include reducing customer service costs and increased NPS.

On the other hand, among consumers, research revealed the following trends:

• 74% use a voice assistant to research and buy products and services, create a shopping list, and check order status.
• 58% use a voice assistant to play music, book an appointment or a car ride, and check directions.
• 53% use a voice or chat assistant to learn about banking or insurance products, check account balance, pay credit card bills, and check account balance.

In a layman’s language, the voice-bots have infiltrated the ranks of almost every domain, more importantly of the BFSI domain. A voice-bot is better equipped to estimate a consumer’s intent, depending on the choice of words and voice patterns. For example, a consumer whose query is ‘how much is an AB car seat for’ is more likely to buy a product or service more readily than another person whose query is ‘what are the best brands for car seats.’ Such segmentation makes marketing streamlined and more successful.

Prospective Advent of Voicebots

Commercial Context:

Less than 30% of companies show a conversational interface (voice-bot) maturity. A majority of organizations that use voice-bots, use them in either customer service or the marketing segment. Organizations which have experienced success in implementing voice-bots have the following common traits:

• Found the right balance between human and robotic interactions to drive greater engagement between the consumer and the organization with respect to any issues or request a consumer may have.
• Developed facets of the bots along with three key areas: experience design, architecture, and legal/compliance rulesets.
• The main focus is on gaining consumer trust by addressing consumer pain points and being contextually relevant when referring a user issue to a voice-bot.

Technological Developments for Voice-bots:

With help from machine learning and natural language generation paradigm, the AI industry is developing a better generation of voice-bots. These voice-bots are based on a conversational model which can identify intent and context, consider and select from multiple steps and theories, keep previous queries in the picture to frame context, and are focused on performing actions and transactions.

By bringing the commercial context together with the current advancements in voice-bot development, an organization stands the best chance to reap benefits from voice-bot adoption.

Conclusion

Today, the customer care industry is a shining example of how voicebots can increase productivity, consumer engagement, and reduce costs at the same time. In the near future, a higher number of organizations across the world is expected to tap the potential of voicebots and digital assistants to improve their client relationship management processes and draw better, round-the-clock engagement support.