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The advancements and rapid innovation of technology have led business processes to get automated. In this regard, the increasing utilization of voice assistants in today’s daily lives, from voice-activated apps to smart speakers in homes, are transforming the way people live and businesses perform. From Amazon’s Alexa to Microsoft’s Cortana, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri, all are already making its way into daily lives, providing directions, giving answers to questions, and even suggestions to users.

Considering reports, in the coming years, voice-first experiences will increasingly become ubiquitous, as Gartner Forecasts, 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen by 2020. In the business ecosystem, voice assistants are becoming prevalent as they can assist in scheduling appointments, reading books, making reminders and much more.

Voice-enabled devices have been around a few years ago when Shoebox Device from IBM arrived back in 1961. This device has laid the foundation for voice assistants like Alexa and Cortana in today’s world. Then assistants from Amazon and Microsoft came into existence almost 55 years later, with Alexa debuting in the Amazon Echo and Cortana in both the windows 8.1 phone and window computers in 2014.

As per reports, before the evolution of voice assistants, there were voice detection systems. However, they failed to imitate a true human voice experience and due to the lack of proper integration mechanisms, they didn’t sit with business systems. 

Voice Assistants in Business Ecosystem

For personalizing voice assistants effectively, the voice application services offer open architecture platforms, APIs, integration solutions and tools that allow organizations to develop their customized applications, called “Skills”, as well as service experiences according to their business requirements. These skills are the source for enabling voice assistants to be installed for distinct use cases. 

The growth of IoT devices has led these voice-enabled assistants to find a profound marketplace in business and home applications. Though this technology are performing as a catalyst for IoT. Voice assistants typically leverage voice queries and a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by entrusting requests to a set of Internet services. 

Voice assistants are not only serving as a better assistant for personal needs but also effective in an enterprise to succeed. The technology has the potential to augment human talent, enhance consumer personalization, optimize productivity, and much more. As voice assistants are based on artificial intelligence, they are able to listen for commands, interpret them, and take action.

Market Growth of Voice Assistants

There are an estimated 3.25 billion digital voice assistants were used in devices worldwide as of 2019. However, the numbers are likely to reach around 8 billion units by 2023. In the United States alone, there are more than 110 million virtual assistant users, and the software is especially common in smartphones and smart speakers. Conversely, Amazon’s Alexa was supported on almost 60,000 different smart home devices globally as of 2019.

It is also predicted that the global market of voice assistant accounted for US$1,723.6 million in 2019, and will reach US$26,872.6 million by 2030, at a growing CAGR of 29.7 percent.