Which voice-enabled service is the fastest to become the best voice-enabled platform for interactions and transactions? The race between Google, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon matters to chatbot developers and users alike. Which ecosystem are you hooking up to? 

With the breakthrough of machine learning, voice-driven applications are getting smarter. Especially in China and Anglo-Saxon countries 'voice' is on the rise. There is also a lot of interest in the smart speakers in the Netherlands, especially Google Home and Amazon's Alexa. Since the introduction of Google Home on the Dutch market, 5 percent of Dutch households use a smart speaker, according to study by Kantar TNS. Kantar predicts that growth will be around 80 percent in the next six months.

Against this promise there is also the necessary restraint. Research of reichelt electronics, one of Europe's largest online electronics stores, shows that more than half of those surveyed do not know how to use voice assistants in everyday life. There is also a fear of being hacked. Consumers are often not satisfied with the quality of this technology. Nearly half (46 percent) say their voice assistant doesn't understand commands, or the device isn't smart enough (32 percent). Improving speech recognition is therefore on the wish list of 65 percent of the respondents.

Who will be our virtual roommate?

There is also a lot of attention for the emergence of chatbots in the Netherlands. However, most chatbots do not get further than a pre-programmed question and answer game. If they are useful at all, they relate to a specific task. The problem is that that task is not always clear to the consumer in advance, which increases the chance of this occurring during a dialogue frustration increases. On the other hand, the best performing virtual assistant – Google, Amazon, Cortana or Siri – has a good chance of becoming our new (virtual) housemate.

Posted two years ago Wired still that Amazon's Alexa would win this battle. The battle now seems to be mainly between Siri, Alexa and Google Home Assistant. Other initiatives seem unlikely at the moment. Microsoft will most likely opt for integration with Alexa instead of further developing its own assistant Cortana, which does not have its own hardware and also not available in Dutch is. Simultaneously with the introduction of the S8 device, Samsung launched an intelligent assistant (Bixby), which can also handle image recognition. Bixby has its own power button that not everyone appreciates. And finally, there's Amelia, IPsoft's bot. It is mainly used in custom solutions for specific clients.

Of the trio of Siri, Alexa and Google, Alexa is the only one who does not yet understand Dutch. Although Siri was the first Dutch-speaking virtual assistant and is present on every Apple device, it can only be activated with your voice if the device is connected to a charger. Since June, Siri has also been approachable via its own hardware, the HomePod. And since October 2018, Google Home Assistant also understands the Dutch language.

Virtual assistant: new possibilities for interaction and transactions

The role as a new housemate is interesting for companies. Voice control brings consumers to a platform where questions and answers can lead to all kinds of business. The potential of the virtual assistants is primarily determined by the links with additional services. They come in two types. In the first place links with functions and services that the user creates himself: think of smart home functions such as Philips Hue or streaming services such as Spotify.

Secondly, the supplier of the assistant can make links in advance: Alexa will take you to Amazon by default, Google has the search engine as a plus. Alexa and Google Home are also emphatically presented as an open ecosystem. This means that developers can add 'skills' and integrate the functionality into their own hardware. This allows interactions to be set up and transactions to be made possible. For example: talking about a flight destination and then booking airline tickets. You can already do voice-controlled shopping at Amazon via Alexa. Bol.com is not that far yet, but what isn't can still come.

The best assistant comes up with suggestions himself

The best virtual assistant's chances of winning are, of course, determined by its ability to conduct a full-fledged, interactive dialogue. Neither Alexa nor Google automatically points out new skills or services to you as a user. That is now a matter of discovery. Companies that integrate their own services with a virtual assistant will therefore have to guide their customers themselves. KLM and bol.com have emphatically started with this. Both companies have integrated their own chatbot into the virtual assistants.

With the command 'hey Google, I want to talk to KLM', the conversation you have with Google Home Assistant is taken over by BlueBot. Blue Bot is KLM's virtual assistant that can help you book a trip and pack your suitcase. Tell Blue Bot where you are going (New York) and the assistant will tell you, among other things, that you need a visa. But if you want to know how to get that visa, it goes quiet. Blue Bot is also unable to 'give back' that question to Google Home Assistant, which you would expect to have advice. And finally, Blue Bot's voice sounds a lot more 'mechanical' than Google Home Assistant. Apparently, KLM has opted for outdated natural speech generator software.

A smooth conversation

Similarly, the Google Home Assistant can put you in touch with the bot from bol.com or the bot from Albert Heijn ('Appie'): 'Hey Google, I'd like to talk to…'. As mentioned, you can add orders to your list at Appie, but you cannot yet shop like Amazon via Alexa. The bol.com bot 'does not yet know the catalog by heart'. Google's hardware is already available at Albert Heijn.

In short, developers of chatbots (and their customers) would do well to think about the question with which ecosystem they are going to connect. It seems that both Apple and Microsoft suffer from their own operating system, while Google and Amazon are "agnostic" in this regard. In addition, it is important how developers connect to an ecosystem: via skills and services or via the more intuitive handover in which the spoken dialogue is 'transferred' from one bot to the other, as is the case with KLM? And last but not least, hooking up to a voice-controlled platform leads to new issues in the field of privacy and security. For example, consider asking the question: “What did my partner ask me last week?”

 

This is an updated edit of an article previously on tech blog Toii popped up.

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