ANALYSIS: VOICE CONTROL Home Entertainment


Voice control – lending a virtual hand


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performance; indeed, the number of consumer devices shipped with voice interfaces “built-in” exceeded those without in 2020.. According to the latest research from


V


Futuresource Consulting, shipments of products with built-in voice assistant technology will double to three billion units in 2024. The audio processing aspects of VAs have


largely matured, and focus has shifted towards improving assistant competency and optimising language models. As such, innovation now lies squarely in the hands of the technology giants with knowhow in artificial intelligence. Virtual assistants promise a frictionless way to


interact with products and services, yet the industry is still several years away from perfecting ‘voice first’ interfaces and may never become truly independent of screens.


A smart choice


Smart home is undoubtedly a standout category in this market – those that rely upon a smart speaker or other control device for voice-based interaction – with heating/climate control, smart lighting and video doorbells leading the segment, according to data from Futuresource Consulting. In home entertainment, voice is viewed as a


shortcut for navigating through a complex content landscape. In home appliances, the use- cases for voice are obtuse, however, the majority utilise the “works with” strategy, allowing integration and control from a smart speaker or other voice-enabled product. Futuresource’s Consumer Insights Survey discovered that usage behaviour with voice


By Simon Forrest, Principal Technology Analyst for Futuresource Consulting


oice control is now established as an essential


feature across


consumer electronics and the global market for virtual assistants (VAs) continues to exhibit robust


interfaces is largely invariable year on year. In order for this sector to develop, we need to expand the utility of virtual assistants overall, encourage users to experiment further with their competences and therefore bridge the gap between “command and control” with contextual awareness. Innovation is arguably in the realm of the


internet giants – companies with deep machine learning expertise, extensive training data, and the heft in compute resource necessary to make swift progress in Artificial Intelligence. Outwardly, efforts are concentrated on improving the proficiency of responses to extend the applications and drive user engagement. Inwardly, work is focussed upon optimising the entire suite of voice technologies, and nurturing partnerships across the ecosystem to create highly-efficient edge-based solutions.


Proactive assistants


Throughout 2021, we expect further tools and features that help developers build deeper engagement with voice experiences. Voice platform vendors will continue to nurture partnerships via investment in tools that accelerate skills development and testing or validation of voice interfaces. We anticipate compliance and security being applied more rigorously to voice interfaces, specifically to handle shared devices such as smart displays that manage several users and profiles. There is indication that VAs will be proactive


in anticipating user intent and become more helpful this year. This is a precursor to “intelligent interjection”, where the assistant can join conversations and influence user thoughts and behaviour. VAs must deliver accurate responses each and


every time, otherwise consumer adoption diminishes. So, platform vendors are working to


enhance the contextual awareness of their VAs and develop Artificial Intelligence capable of surfacing precisely the right results. Virtual assistants are developing beyond


simple command and control mechanisms, transforming into platforms with rudimentary conversational ability and intelligent anticipation. In 2021, we expect VA platforms will become


capable of participating in conversations and deliver new monetisation opportunities for service providers beyond harvesting data on usage behaviours. Platform vendors are moving swiftly to utilise


neural network accelerators (NNAs) to place many elements of voice engines at the edge, on devices themselves, to reduce latency and increase privacy. The market is now changing, with product


designers now considering whether the optimum approach might be in using domain-specific assistants. These promise to improve command- based interaction, while cloud-based virtual assistants harness the dual benefits of flexible machine learning coupled with massive knowledge banks. The trend of integrating voice into devices


continues. Futuresource predicts that four out of every five consumer electronics products sold will exhibit some form of virtual assistant capability by 2024.


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