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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 , and voice-enabled consumers’ digital behavior, explore how leading speakers like the , 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 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 Siri Facebook + Ozlo

Voice Assistants

SoundHound Echo Google Home HomePod 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, 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 , 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, , Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and 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 US Voice Assistant Users (Millions) 5

eMarketer 105.8 100.5 91.0 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 are using them general questions 90% timers / alarms / reminders 87% December 2017 to-do lists / shopping list 71% $1.8 Billion in 2017 OC&C …and a projected 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 , 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

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 65 (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. owners that can’t • Engage experts to support your brand and 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 to the pre-smart evolve and become an indispensable part of consumers’ 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 [email protected]. ■

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, 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/ New York London India

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