Coronavirus is Serious
The coronavirus has been on the top of everyone’s mind across the globe for the last few weeks, and for good reason. The World Health Organization declared coronavirus as a global pandemic, causing companies and governments to take drastic, but necessary measures to combat the spread. This has led to questions of everything from our health to the strength of our financial markets. Being an early stage investor in voice technology, I have also questioned the impact this virus will have on the audio and voice tech space. This forced time of reflection has brought up some threats and opportunities that I see facing the voice space and, to better talk through those, I am going to look at consumer and enterprise apps separately.
Setting the Scene for Voice Tech
In order to better express my points, I want to talk about the context most people will find themselves in over the next few weeks. The first relates to where most people are using voice assistants. When it comes to voice apps and assistants, we are primarily talking about use cases that we experience in our home/car vs in our workplace. In 2020, we are gravitating towards more and more smart devices in our homes. Experiences through smart speakers and displays are becoming more robust and enjoyable. With more workers being forced to work from home, there are naturally going to be more people exposed to voice connected devices – especially in the coming weeks and months.
Second, we are talking about a rapidly spreading, easily transmittable and potentially fatal virus. Having to physically touch devices (particularly shared ones) has become a liability. The relationship between tangible objects and health has never been more seriously considered by the broader public and the opportunity for the voice community to reshape/redefine our relationship with technology has never been better. While Silicon Valley was quick to adopt no handshakes in the early days of the virus, it is now common for people to practice social distancing to further the spread. Since voice technology is by nature “hands-off,” I think everyday consumers may start to ask different questions about what voice technology can do for them, both in their day-to-day life at home and in the workplace.
Consumer
Never has there been a better time to build a consumer facing voice application. As I mentioned above, people are going to be more interested in the capabilities of voice while embracing a “hands-off” mindset. I believe amazing products can be made at this intersection of a change in consumer behavior and thoughtful design. For example, user behavior shifting to mobile and Angry Bird’s thoughtful design of swipe and touch. This simple but elegant feature drove mobile best practices for not only mobile gaming, but every other mobile product category as well. The end consumer will be receptive to a voice interaction model. The question is who will figure out the best way to engage in that relationship.
Categories that I expect to do well over the next few months are ones that are already finding success with audio and voice platforms (such as Entertainment, in the form of streamed audio and gaming). This is driven not only by the fact that these categories already excel on voice platforms, but also that they pair well with younger users who will be home from school in the coming weeks. Many professionals are working from home and more able to use their voice enabled devices throughout the workday. If I owned a successful brand with a proven track record on audio and voice platforms, now would be the time to really go after customer acquisition. Potential customers are ready to engage with your products.
I believe there is also an opportunity for other types of companies to build voice apps that focus on utility – such as voice shopping. In the past, there have been many people that have tried and failed to figure out voice commerce, or V-commerce. However, I believe a large constraint facing developers in the past was the confinement for building without the use of screens. Voice has great use cases that do not involve a screen, but for use cases like shopping, a screen to serve as a visual aid makes a lot of sense. As I mentioned, the intersection of a change in consumer behavior and elegant design can drive unforeseen product innovation. If you have something to sell, test yourself with new voice driven interaction models that include things like smart displays and smart TVs. I believe now more than ever, people will be willing to test new ways of shopping as retail and restaurants alike are boarded up for the foreseeable future.
Enterprise
When it comes to voice in the enterprise, there is no way to sugar coat it. Executives will be looking to invest only where there is proven ROI. This can be seen both as a good and a bad thing for companies playing in this space, depending on the product you are offering. For the companies who have proven their ROI, I believe the times ahead are good. Decision makers are going to be forced to look at what is actually helping the bottom line. I believe we are going to see doors start to close for companies that provide non-essential products rather than essential ones. This is a sad reality when markets correct, but proves again the importance of businesses actually driving revenue and being prepared with 12+ months runway in case of a black swan event like coronavirus.
Another area I am keeping my eye on over the next year or so is again driven by user behavior. The majority of workers who are able to work remote have begun doing just that, working remote. Referencing my earlier point about the priority of being “hands free,” I am curious to see if there are any user behaviors developed by remote workers that may make their way back into the workplace. A few use cases come to mind.
The first is around smart home automation. For those who use some sort of smart device in your home, you start to realize how having voice as a simple interface to the devices around you can translate easily to the workplace. There is no need to put our hands on lights, thermostats, meeting tablets, controllers, conference speakers, or really anything around our offices. This sort of change in offices could be driven by a few parties. First, from the employees themselves who have become accustomed to these benefits in their own homes and decide to ask more of their employers. The second is from office decision makers. This virus should cause corporations to reflect on how to better set up their workspaces for a healthy and clean environment. Voice interfaces could play an interesting and primary role in that offering.
The second use case would be meetings – primarily video conferencing. Those who were not used to working remotely have probably become more familiar with Zoom and Google Hangout meetings. While video conferencing has come a long way, user attention still can drift and important details can be missed. There is helpful audio software (that I have actually been using myself) that uses Speech To Text to transcribe conversations and Natural Language Processing to look for important insights from each meeting. For people who have experienced the moment of panic when you lose focus in a video conference, you will understand the immense value of a product that offers the ability to retroactively reference and reflect on past meetings. This could easily be implemented into most conference rooms because they are often already set up to capture and process audio. It will be interesting to see what user behaviors from our remote work can make their way into our day to day office work.
Long Term
In the long term, we will get past the coronavirus. The shock across business and daily life from this pandemic will also settle. I wanted to take some time and offer my perspective on the voice space as I am passionate about it. With that being said, this is a time to focus on more than just tech or work. Pay attention to our health and government officials and pay attention to those closest to you. We at VoicePunch want to take a moment to wish you the best – not only in your ventures, but especially in your health and well-being.
