Marketing is not just a classical word, it is the area which is full of experiments. Few years back we all have observed a strong presence of digital in this area and we all have experienced how it has ruled the market. But every new thing came to a level of saturation where the existing technology needs improvement. Digital marketing is also going through the same phase. So we could see that potential in virtual assistance, which would be going to dominate the market in coming years.
Digital Marketing Professional Yogin Vora wrote on Linkedin that in the coming years, we definitely would be seeing a world dominated by virtual assistants. This would simply mean that the way consumers will perform even the most common day-to-day tasks and actions will change. As so, because of this the the way brands and marketers interact with the consumers will also completely change. So the time to respond to new technology is now.
One major change that has come over the years is that voice assistants now have also been pushing brands to create new kinds of content. Basically for all the brands to get their message across they need to focus on their customer experience, both in terms of how their audience engages with content and also the ways in which their products can integrate with AI from a technological standpoint. In relation this, voice assistants are driving new forms of advertising. Today, Alexa and Google Home don’t offer much advertising outside of allowing brands to build content and sponsor skills or apps within Alexa. Skills are functions that allow Alexa to react to a customer’s audio commands. So, In the future, we can imagine ‘pick your story’ type advertising.
The ability Voice AI to differentiate between voices and manage multiple account profiles also means marketers will have more insights into multiple users within a single household who make different purchase decisions (basis multiple parameters) have different brand preferences, wish lists, music playlists and other personalized characteristics.
Since the time we can remember, businesses have tried to sell and upsell things things to consumers, at any cost, in the digital market. The average customer today has literally unlimited options, for any given product on the market. As more products have started crowding up the digital space, brands are continuously trying to make their customer experience as seamless as possible. And with messaging apps taking over as the primary form of consumer communication, a new hybrid of retail and conversation is taking place: Conversational Commerce.
The future of ecommerce will be the voice command technology. The success success of the Echo definitely gives a proof of concept for that. In the same stream, Google has also launched – Google Home. These voice based devices have already created their own specialized segments in the ecommerce, voice commerce sectors and it is rapidly becoming a standard part of many households. What makes devices like Echo and Google Home so fascinating for us is that they kind of came out of thin air. In the past 1 year alone, the concept of voice command software has come up in conferences more than any other topic.
In the last 24 months, voice-enabled speakers have slowly gained traction, introducing the world to voice-activated AI technologies. As we approach the second half of 2018, there’s no sign of slowing down the smart speaker revolution. The way we use our smartwatches, phones, tablets, and laptops, we will soon begin using smart speakers with the same line of thought. Already, more than 35 million people globally use a smart speaker at least once in 30 days and the global market for smart speakers is expected to touch $2 billion by 2020. To win on the customer battlefield in 2018. So looking at the trends brands must incorporate voice into their comprehensive digital strategies, and they must do it now.
In the end I must say, the future of AI based voice is here. Voice commerce is now deeply integrated into daily life for many individuals and households. Just as the Apple App Store was once a novelty for early adopters, so will be voice commerce. It is just a matter of time and technology.