Google Assistant is now a top artificial intelligence priority in the customer service segment, together with Microsoft’s Cortana, according to a new study authored by Pindrop. Businesses see improved customer interaction as the main benefit of contemporary AI solutions, with 85-percent of IT decision makers interviewed by the company saying they plan to embrace such technologies within the next twelve months. The finding signals a major AI investment wave is on the horizon as only 28-percent of global IT companies presently offer some form of voice-enabled assistant interactions to customers.
The trend is likely to kick off a transition to voice-based user interfaces and lead to a new “conversational economy.” according to Pindrop, though the research firm remains reluctant to attach any specific period to that prediction. Two out of three companies are planning to eventually rely on voice-enabled AI services as the main form of customer interaction, according to the same report. Nearly 25-percent of the interviewed decision makers said their endgame is to have such technologies be responsible for all communications with customers. 78-percent of Pindrop’s representative sample will invest in new solutions based on either Cortana, Google Assistant, or both over the next two years, the study indicates. The Echo ecosystem came in third, with 77-percent of all digital businesses being likely to commit to Amazon’s voice-enabled solutions over the same period.
AI assistants are also the main selling point of smart speakers, currently the fastest-growing consumer electronics category on the planet, according to numerous industry trackers. While conversational digital helpers are still largely unexplored in the context of business applications, the technology has yet to come close to maturing and though its growth remains largely guaranteed, many of its use cases are likely yet to emerge. Pindrop’s latest study also projects Watson, Siri, and Bixby will enjoy a significant enterprise boost due to customer service tech investments by 2020, together with SAP’s Co-Pilot solution.