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Conversational Interfaces

Remember how everyone in Star Trek talked to the ship’s computer? That was great, and it is where business computing is heading, but we’re not there yet. At home, people talk to personal assistants like Siri and Alexa and others but what’s happening about voice interfaces at work? It turns out that it is likely much closer than you think.

By Roban Chahal

Roban Chahal is the editor of The Advisor, a researcher, and oversees TMC benchmarking studies.

Home First

As with smartphones, years ago, consumer use leads business use for personal assistants. According to Insider Intelligence (eMarketer), a market research company, this year, approximately:

That’s 68% of households! Your experience at the office lags far behind, but maybe not for long.

Voice at Work

A range of companies are integrating a voice assistant into their products or services:

  1. The Mercedes-Benz MBUX infotainment system provides voice control over windows, in-car temperature, lighting, navigation, phone calls, text messaging, as well as some internet searches.
  2. Starbucks has partnered with Alibaba in China for food delivery.
  3. Bank of America’s voice assistant provides a voice interface for their mobile app.
  4. With Pandora Voice Mode, music streaming users can play, pause, or skip any song, find podcasts, control the volume, and much more.
  5. The Nike Adapt Huarache White Black sneaker allows for a customized fit through the use of a smartphone app.
  6. MSC Cruises offers a digital cabin assistant using a smart speaker.

But these are still consumer-focused apps. What about at your office?

Office Applications

Microsoft has developed a range of voice-based services:

Google Docs also supports dictation.

Just Think

We’re not yet at the Star Trek level of voice interface but the race is now on for conversational voice interfaces that will make us smile.

Just think about this workday:

Work is going to become a lot more fun!

If you’d like to explore these ideas further or comment on this article, reach me at .

This article was published in the May 2023 edition of The TMC Advisor
- ISSN 2369-663X Volume:10 Issue:4

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