How are voice-activated assistants changing consumer behavior?

Voice-activated assistants like Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant reshape consumer behavior, altering how people engage with technology. When a user asks, "What's the best smartphone?" AI algorithms leverage SEO-optimized content and reviews, influencing recommended brands. Firms investing in voice search optimization gain a competitive edge, ensuring prominent product features. As AI personalizes recommendations, user preferences become pivotal, impacting brand selection or exclusion based on online presence and relevance in voice searches. This shift emphasizes the need for businesses to adapt digital strategies, staying competitive in the evolving landscape of voice-enabled consumer interactions. #VoiceTech #AIInfluence

According to the Vixen Labs AI Consumer Index, in the past year, 42% of voice assistant users in the US have used a voice assistant to search or research things online. Optimizing for long-tail phrases and the questions relevant to your brand are keys to winning at voice search. Instead of focusing on owning keywords, owning the answer is critical. The good news though, is that good voice search starts with great SEO.

If you're new to Voice and how it's changing consumer behavior, search is a really good place to start. As the article mentions, voice search queries tend to be longer and have more context/nuance than text-based searches. For example, a simple text search might be "stain removal," and a similar long-tail query might be "What's the best way to remove a grass stain from jeans?" The best way to think about Voice search is to identify and answer your audience's questions in each customer journey phase. Additionally, in my research, a large percentage (75% mobile app, 69% website) of Americans who start with a voice search want to continue with a voice experience on a brand's website or mobile app.

One of the great things about Voice applications is that when tagged appropriately, you get all kinds of real-world audience insights. Anything from the words people use to describe their problem to how they talk about your product/service. It's like social listening on steroids. These insights are a great starting point and can be used to optimize content throughout your marketing ecosystem. Once you've optimized the experience based on these insights, you can collect feedback via voice surveys and other more traditional methods to identify any missing features, content, or additional areas of the existing experience that need to be optimized.

I received a call a few days back from @Tata AIA Life for reminding me of due date of an upcoming Life insurance Premium. The voice on call was so realistic that I tried to reply to him. Only then did I realize that it was a Robo-caller with enhanced voice modulation so as to make the user experience feel like a continuous conversation instead of discrete words patched together. I ended up listening to the entire message and my attitude towards Robo-callers also changed a bit due to this particular call. Hence in my experience, Voice modulation in addition to Voice personalization can add a delight factor towards changing Customer behavior.

An often-overlooked aspect is how Voice or conversational interfaces can enhance internal operations to make various tasks more efficient. In a restaurant setting, Voice can be used to train new staff and to provide just-in-time instruction when they need it. In retail, Voice is used in warehouses to streamline the picking and restocking. Some platforms are currently available to deploy your conversational experience on mobile apps, websites, IVRs, social (facebook messenger & Whatsapp) from a single location. Think of it as a Voice/conversational CMS that houses your content and can be deployed anywhere. By deploying from a centralized platform, you get the added benefit of a single source of truth regarding analytics.

Recent data from Vixen Labs AI Consumer Report shows that 61% of consumers in the US and 62% of consumers in the UK are active users of voice assistants. The general sentiment is positive in that consumers feel voice is faster than texting, helps them multitask, and also helps them search for information more effectively. However, consumers do have concerns about privacy and trust. A thoughtful strategy and roadmap can set up the foundation needed to implement voice technology successfully.

Innovative brands see Voice and conversational AI as a way to enhance their offerings and provide another way for a consumer to interact with them. Because Voice experiences are relatively new, it's a perfect time to do research and conduct proper discovery to uncover user needs and prioritize them against business objectives. By conducting stakeholder interviews and end-user research, we've uncovered insights that fueled our conversational experience and led to optimizations elsewhere in the marketing ecosystem. Remember, with Voice experiences, the way your audience accesses information might differ, but their intent and needs are the same as others during the phases of the customer journey.