Pindrop Survey: Business Use of Voice Technology to Triple in Next 12 Months

85 percent of businesses surveyed will use voice technology – such as Amazon’s Alexa or Microsoft’s Cortana voice-activated assistants - to communicate with customers within the next year according to research from Pindrop, the pioneer in voice security and authentication. Currently only 28 percent of businesses do so, reflecting great ambitions within industry to create a “Conversational Economy” – an ecosystem where voice, not touch, is the main technology interface for customers.

Based on the findings, the number of businesses planning to use voice to speak and listen to their customers will triple. Businesses also have ambitious long-term goals for using voice. Over two-thirds (67 percent) are planning to use voice-activated assistants for the majority of customer interactions, while nearly one in four businesses plan to use them for all interactions, reflecting a growing trust in the technology’s capabilities.

Ambitious Enterprise Voice Plans

• 94 percent of managers see voice technology as an important driver of customer satisfaction
• 88 percent believe they’ll gain a competitive advantage
• 57 percent believe it will increase operational efficiencies
• 57 percent also believe it will reduce the cost of each customer transaction

While Alexa has dominated headlines around the Conversational Economy, enterprises are taking a more considered approach when introducing assistants into their business processes. Pindrop’s findings show that the most attractive and invested in voice assistants today and in the next two years for enterprises come from Microsoft, Google and Amazon, versus some less attractive counterparts for current and future investment:

 

While respondents feel that voice technology will act as a boost to sales, there are also high levels of concern (80 percent) about the ability for businesses to keep the data acquired through voice-based technology safe.