Always-Listening Voice Adoption Boosted by New Technology

August 9 2021, 00:55
Market awareness on the robustness of always-on voice-triggering grew slowly due to consumer mistrust and privacy concerns, according to SAR Insight & Consulting, which also correlates the fact that the availability of very-low-power platforms had been limited. According to a new SAR study, new technology will help drive the market growth of always-listening voice devices, helping to overcome initial consumer wariness.
 

Always-on voice technology is used as a very convenient way to trigger voice assistants. Well known digital assistants include Apple's Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Baidu Duer, Alibaba AlieGenie, Tencent Xiaowei, and Microsoft Cortana. In 2021, an estimated 1.5 billion devices will ship with always-on voice enabled and more than 12 billion devices are expected to ship from 2021 to 2026.

The latest FOCUS study from SAR Insight, "Always-Listening Voice," is an in-depth analysis of devices requiring voice to trigger digital assistants. In this research and analysis effort, SAR provides comprehensive datasets showing adoption of always on voice in multiple device markets, forecasts, and top-level market commentary. The report from SAR Insight and Consulting breaks the market down into voice-interface-enabled, digital-assistant-enabled and always-on, and always-listening-enabled devices.

“Most devices with a voice assistant built in will use always-on technology, unless push-to-talk is required to trigger extra features,” the report’s author Kian Rayment says. “Although full of features and convenience, voice assistants need to advance and become more intuitive and reliable to expand consumer usage.  Companies are developing their own proprietary wake-words to customize their branding. This is shaking things up and creating additional purchasing incentive for consumers.” 

According to SAR, wearables such as smart watches will see a significant uptake of this technology as low-power solutions continue to progress. Headphone applications are also a big driver. “Touchless solutions continue to show promise due to the importance of hygiene benefits in the current wider economic climate,” Kian adds.

These findings are from SAR Insight & Consulting’s recently published FOCUS study on "Always-Listening Voice," which is published as part of its Voice Software and Algorithms service.
www.sarinsight.com
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