Voice AI: A Conversational Customer Journey - How voice technologies are transforming marketing and the customer experience as we speak - Annalect

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Voice AI: A Conversational
Customer Journey
How voice technologies are transforming marketing
and the customer experience as we speak.

annalect.com
The voice of the customer                               The era of voice-enabled search and commerce has
                                                        arrived, and advertisers need to ready themselves
has literally taken on a new                            for this new paradigm. By embedding their brands
                                                        into conversations with customers, advertisers can
meaning, thanks to recent                               provide personalized solutions for just about any
                                                        problem. However, most still need to figure out
advances in voice-enabled                               how to seamlessly integrate voice into the customer
                                                        experience, efficiently capture and manage this new
technology and artificial                               data stream, and assess resources to ensure they can
                                                        fully capitalize on this new world of “speak to shop.”
intelligence (AI)                                       In this paper, we aim to clarify the key concepts of
                                                        voice AI, explain how the technology is changing
Through voice assistants like Siri, and voice-enabled   consumers’ digital behavior, explore how leading
speakers like the Amazon Echo, advertisers are          brands are taking advantage, and what you should be
presented with a new opportunity to speak up.           doing to get ready for the new era of voice commerce.

Voice AI: A Conversational Customer Journey
3

       What is Voice AI?
       Voice-powered artificial intelligence is the technology          The most common representations of artificial
       that brings together speech recognition software,                intelligence-based voice technologies are digital
       natural language processing (NLP), and machine                   voice assistants and voice-enabled speakers:
       learning, to enable conversational interactions
       between humans and voice-activated devices. This                 • Voice assistants are intelligent software agents
       technology converts human speech into queries                      that interact via voice with customers (think Siri).
       whereby voice AI applications can help users with                  They can be activated through a variety of devices,
       tasks of varying complexity, including multi-step                  such as smartphones, speakers, computers, TVs,
       requests such as buying movie tickets, ordering pizza,             and other Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.
       or making travel arrangements.
                                                                        • Voice-enabled speakers are stand-alone speakers
       While speech recognition technology has been                       that are enabled with voice assistant technology
       around for a while (dating back to the ‘60s when IBM               (think Amazon’s Echo). They connect with
       launched Shoebox: a speech recognition tool that                   services to provide information, play music,
       identified 16 words and single digits), the increased              and complete tasks, such as ordering food
       accuracy attained in NLP and AI algorithms in the                  or checking traffic. They can also connect
       last ten years have markedly fueled the growth of                  and interact with compatible IoT devices,
       voice technology. Today, it is estimated that voice                such as appliances or wearables, to complete
       assistants are able to recognize speech and achieve                household tasks like running the dishwasher.
       word precision with 95% accuracy. In addition, given
       the abundance of customer data, the opportunity for
       voice assistants to curate and personalize everyday
       experiences for users is pivotal.

                          The most well-known voice assistants and speakers are illustrated below:

                                                                                                                              Other

                        Alexa         Google Assistant           Siri               Cortana             Bixby               Facebook +
                                                                                                                               Ozlo

Voice Assistants

                                                                                                                        SoundHound
                        Echo           Google Home          HomePod                  Invoke          Bixby Speaker

Voice Enabled
  Speakers                                                                                                             Nuance Nina ID
4

    Is Voice AI Changing Consumers’
    Digital Behavior?
    Voice AI creates a more natural and conversational       voice-assisted devices in use in the U.S. Other popular
    experience between humans and machines                   smart speakers (US) include Google Home, Apple
    (smartphones included). The tediousness of opening       HomePod, Harman Kardon Invoke (powered by MS
    a browser, typing and scanning search results has        Cortana), among others. Amazon is now licensing the
    been replaced with an assistant that responds to our     Alexa product and it is embedded on multiple third-
    commands with a welcoming voice, telling us what         party devices, like Sonos speakers.
    we need to know. Not only that, but its ability to tap
    into users’ data, browsing behaviors, media histories,   While most voice assistants have similar functionality,
    and other unique identifiable data points, delivers a    key differences emerge from their parent company’s
    more curated and personalized experience, reducing       heritage and vision. Siri’s greater market share is partly

          “As of January 2018,
           there were an estimated
           one billion voice
           searches per month.”                                                                          Alpine AI

    friction with the technology and simplifying the         explained by being the first to market, in addition
    decision-making process for customers.                   to Apple’s dominance on smart mobile features.
                                                             Cortana, linked to Windows and everything Microsoft,
    Voice is already changing the way we search.             displays a greater focus on productivity. Google
    Nowadays, one in four searches is conducted via          Assistant’s strength resides in the longstanding history
    voice, and this figure is expected to reach 50% by       of Google’s search engine, making it one of the most
    2020. Roughly 91 million people, or almost 28%           powerful voice assistants in the market. And Amazon’s
    of the US population, uses voice assistants at least     Alexa aims at integrating itself to whole-house
    monthly, with millennials representing the largest       management and services, as a link to Amazon’s vast
    group of users (49%), followed by Gen X-ers (35%).       e-commerce empire.

    The most popular voice digital assistants are Apple
    Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft
    Cortana, and Samsung Bixby. Siri owns the largest
    market share in the US, with 41.4 million monthly
    active users. As far as smart speakers, Amazon Echo
    leads the pack, with 66.6% share of the 61.1 million

    Voice AI: A Conversational Customer Journey
5
 US Voice Assistant Users (Millions)

 eMarketer
                91.0
                       100.5
                                105.8
                                                   2020 Projection:
         72.1                                      50% of searches
 54.6
                                                   will be conducted
                                                      by voice                          Comscore

  2016   2017   2018    2019     2020

                                                               2020 Projection: % of US
  “The Echo Dot                                             population using smart speakers

   was the best-                                    (76.5 Million)

                                                                             %
selling product on                                                   23
 all of Amazon in
 the 2018 holiday
   season” Techcrunch
                                                                                                eMarketer

 How US                   playing music                                                97%
 voice-enabled            weather / news                                           94%
 speaker owners
                          general questions                                       90%
 are using them
                          timers / alarms / reminders                            87%
 December 2017
                          to-do lists / shopping list                      71%         $1.8 Billion in 2017
                                                                                        …and a projected
 OC&C                     making a purchase                          62%               $40 Billion in 2022

                          enabling smart home devices           57%
                          emails / calls                      55%
6

    How Will Voice AI Impact Brands?
    As the adoption of voice assistants and voice-enabled      hard to imagine that voice-commerce is where
    speakers continues to grow, voice AI agents will           they’ll go next. Some search professionals are already
    have a greater role mediating (or disintermediating)       anticipating the emergence of voice ad-exchanges,
    customers’ interactions with brands.                       where advertisers will bid to get their brands to the
                                                               top spot. The first execution of this solution has just
    When compared to paid search, voice-enabled                hit the market: Instreamatic.ai is the first company to
    devices typically provide a single response to most        serve “voice ads that people can speak with.”
    queries. This is because their goal is to surface the
    most relevant content for the user and simplify the        In addition to competing for the top voice slot,
    dialog to accomplish tasks. Therefore, whereas on          marketers should realize that in this new voice
    desktop and mobile, advertisers were satisfied with        ecosystem, access to customer data generated
    landing among the first couple of pages of search          through third-party devices will most likely be owned
    results, with voice, they will have to compete for the     by the voice-AI makers—which, coincidentally, are
    top slot (or top three at most, since users are unlikely   also the major advertising walled gardens (we could
    to listen to more than a few results through voice         very well be witnessing the early stages of future
    assistants). Despite Amazon and Google’s current           sound/voice walled gardens.)
    focus on providing a great user experience, it’s not

    Voice AI: A Conversational Customer Journey
7

Some first-mover advertisers have already begun incorporating voice
and artificial intelligence into their products and services to outpace
the competition.

  Auto                   In 2017, Nissan announced that is working with Microsoft and its Connected
                         Vehicle Platform, to integrate Cortana into some Nissan models. Cortana will
                         adapt preferences and features based on drivers and passengers on board.
                         For example, through the calendar integration in Cortana, the driver could
                         ask about his or her schedule for guidance on where to go next, and get
                         suggestions on shortcuts to their destination. In addition to Cortana, Nissan
                         also announced that Alexa will be able to lightly operate some Nissan models
                         (turning the engine on/off, operating locks and horn, etc.)

  Travel & Hospitality   In partnership with IBM, Hilton piloted Connie, the first intelligent robot
                         concierge in the hospitality industry. Connie is powered by Watson, IBM’s AI
                         supercomputer, and she works side-by-side with Hilton’s guest services, to
                         help with visitor requests, personalize guest experiences, and support travelers
                         with additional information to plan their trips. Connie uses a combination of
                         technologies including Watson APIs (Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech,
                         and Natural Language Classifier), and a partnership with WayBlazer (which has
                         extensive travel domain knowledge) to interact with hotel guests and address
                         their travel needs. Hilton’s goal is to deepen customer and brand engagement
                         through innovative and more personalized experiences.

  Retail                 Walmart and Target joined forces with Google to compete against Amazon’s
                         Alexa-enabled shopping services. Walmart will be offering hundreds of
                         thousands of items for voice shopping through Google Assistant. Through
                         the personalization of the partnership, customers will be able to order generic
                         items like cheese or pasta, and Google Assistant will know which brands
                         and size the user prefers. This year, Target will give users the option to link
                         their Target.com accounts to Google, for similar personalization features (as
                         Walmart). Google Express or Uber will take care of the delivery.

  CPG                    The fast food giant McDonald’s partnered with Microsoft to develop an app
                         that takes advantage of MS cognitive technology to convert drive-through
                         orders into text, and send it directly into an integrated POS system for faster
                         processing and even faster drive-through meal delivery.

  Finance                Capital One developed an Alexa skill that allows customers to check their
                         credit card balance or make payments when due. The skill has the necessary
                         safeguards in place: it performs security checks and requires customers to
                         sign in using a username and password. Once the skill is open, users must
                         provide a four-digit code to confirm their identity. The only caution for users is
                         to make sure no one overhears their personal key, otherwise they’ll be able to
                         access banking or credit card info through Alexa as well.
8

    What Should Marketers Do About it?
    It may be time to speak up! As a first step, marketers   • Partnership: Brands can integrate themselves
    must assess their business’ strengths and resources        into specific experiences of a partner brand.
    to determine if they have the necessary digital,           For example, a beauty brand sold at Target
    technological, and data management capabilities            can piggyback on the Target program to
    to create their own voice-AI experiences. Second,          integrate with Google Home shopping.
    consider customer loyalty: brands with higher brand
    loyalty are better positioned to attract customers to    • Autonomous: A brand creates its own voice
    their own voice AI offering.                               experience. Examples include Hilton’s Watson-

           “Behind this voice activity is a complex AI
           infrastructure that turns voice command into
           data which can be used by these devices.
           Marketers seeking to create meaningful
           interactions in this environment
           must first understand how people are
           ‘speaking’ to devices, which can be done
           through keyword research. Qualifying
           and quantifying this behavior will lead
           to new approaches to content strategy
           and structured data sets that fuel the AI
           revolution powering voice interaction.”
           Dave McAnally, Resolution Media, Content

    Once brand and organizational strengths are                enabled robot concierge Connie, or the
    appraised, there are several paths to create a voice-      development of brand-specific Alexa skills.
    enabled marketing program:
                                                             With these models, the greater the cost, the greater
    • Open model: Partner with a voice AI provider,          the control over customers’ data and product
      and make your brand’s data available to the AI         experience.
      service so that it can be accessed, vetted, and
      delivered when deemed relevant for the user.

    Voice AI: A Conversational Customer Journey
9

                                                                        65                                                        %
Our Point of View
The growth of voice technology and its impact
on the customer journey clearly speaks for itself,
and advertisers must prepare to enter the voice-
commerce race or risk falling behind. These are
some key considerations for data-driven marketers
to prepare for the integration of voice initiatives into
their overall marketing and media strategies:

• Assess your data and marketing technology
  maturity level, to ensure your organization will
  be ready when time comes to ingest voice data
  and deliver analytics and performance insights.

• Develop a technical roadmap to                                                     (the portion of
  acquire the necessary tech capabilities
  to manage the incorporation of voice
  strategies into marketing and media.
                                                                                     Amazon Echo and
• Invest in partnerships and the required talent to                                  Google Home
  make your martech stack vision come to life.

• Engage experts to support your brand and
                                                                                     owners that can’t
  business cultural transformation and be ready to
  listen to your customers’ voice as they speak.                                     imagine going back
As voice assistants and smart speakers continue to
evolve and become an indispensable part of consumers’
                                                                                     to the pre-smart
life, integrating the necessary voice technologies
into marketing strategies should be a top priority for
                                                                                     speaker days)
marketers in 2018. If you would like to learn more about
how you can accelerate your voice enablement plans,                                  Geomarketing.com
please reach out to our Annalect Consulting team, at
AnnalectConsulting@annalect.com. ■

Sources
Google’s Ability to Understand Language Is Nearly                      eMarketer Inc., 10 Key Digital Trends for 2018, http://totalaccess.
Equivalent to Humans, April Glaser, https://www.recode.                emarketer.com/reports/viewer.aspx?r=2002189
net/2017/5/31/15720118/google-understand-language-speech-
equivalent-humans-code-conference-mary-meeker                          Digital Staff, Virtual Assistant Comparison: Cortana, Google
                                                                       Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Bixby — https://www.digitaltrends.com/
eMarketer, Voice-Enabled Technology StatPack: Current                  computing/cortana-vs-siri-vs-google-now/2/
Forecasts for Digital Assistants and Speakers. August 2017, Victoria
Petrock, https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Voice-Enabled-               Forrester Research: The Rise of Intelligent Agents,
Technology-StatPack-Current-Forecasts-Digital-Assistants-              September 2016
Speakers/2002120
                                                                       Forrester Research: How Voice-Controlled Intelligent Agents Can
Siri Usage and Engagement Dropped Since Last Year, As Alexa and        Redefine Computing, November 2013
Cortana Grew, Sarah Perez, https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/11/
siri-usage-and-engagement-dropped-since-last-year-as-alexa-            Adweek, August 2017, October 2017
and-cortana-grew/
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