{"id":5453,"date":"2019-04-01T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/hey-alexa-whats-next-for-voice-tech-five-insights-into-a-voice-first-world\/"},"modified":"2025-03-26T04:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T04:53:15","slug":"hey-alexa-whats-next-for-voice-tech-five-insights-into-a-voice-first-world","status":"publish","type":"rbc_tl","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/disruptors\/hey-alexa-whats-next-for-voice-tech-five-insights-into-a-voice-first-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey Alexa, What&#8217;s Next for Voice Tech? Five Insights into a Voice-First World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This happens hundreds of times a week, according to Al Lindsay, Amazon&#8217;s VP of Alexa Engine Software.<\/p>\n<p>With 80,000 skills and growing, marriage is maybe the one thing Alexa can&#8217;t do.<\/p>\n<p>This year, the smart speaker industry will grow to be worth an estimated $7 billion, and demand could potentially surpass that of smartphones.<\/p>\n<p>A Canadian voice tech pioneer, Lindsay joined us at RBC Disruptors, our monthly conversation on innovation and technology, to share his insights into a voice-first world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/599638398&#038;color=%231c040c&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Listen on <a href=\"https:\/\/link.chtbl.com\/WqJxzQiQ?sid=article_page\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/link.chtbl.com\/4Os8MeK3?sid=article_page\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Google Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/link.chtbl.com\/QVwVVwQ1?sid=article_page\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/link.chtbl.com\/Gdvm1L5x?sid=article_page\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Simplecast<\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Here are 5 takeaways about the future of voice:<\/p>\n<h4>1. Voice Tech Is Making Smartphones Look Dumb<\/h4>\n<p>A lot of people ask, \u201cWhy do I need voice tech? I can do everything I want on my smartphone.&#8221; For Lindsay, his ah-ha moment was listening to music: &#8220;I&#8217;d say, play songs from Sting and two seconds later music would be streaming from the speaker.&#8221; No more taping on glass, navigating through apps and waiting. We used to see smartphones as the ultimate convenience. Now, voice tech has usurped them, eliminating the need to pull out your phone \u2014 and possibly get even more distracted. Voice could allow us to get back to being humans again.<\/p>\n<h4>2. Personality is Everything<\/h4>\n<p>In the beginning, Lindsay and his team were focused on making a voice tech assistant that was smart and helpful \u2014 those seemed like the obvious selling points. But customers leaned into Alexa as a persona. \u201cIt turns out fun and a sense of humour are appreciated as well,&#8221; Lindsay said. The company started adding quirks and funny responses, realizing the more natural interacting with voice tech feels, the easier people will adopt using it.<\/p>\n<h4>3. Voice Tech Is Disrupting Every Industry<\/h4>\n<p>When asked about what industries voice tech is disrupting, Lindsay was definitive: \u201cAll of them.&#8221; He predicted major changes from health care to hospitality. For hospital patients, smart speakers could handle simple requests like turning on the television or adjusting the bed, saving time and labour. When people go out to dinner, they&#8217;ll use voice to order a drink, and to charge the bill to their Visa \u2014 \u201cor to the table over there,&#8221; he joked.<\/p>\n<h4>4. Every Business Needs a Voice Strategy<\/h4>\n<p>As we move to a more ambient world, small and large businesses alike will need a voice strategy. Similar to deciding on brand colours and slogans, companies will need to ask: Is our voice soothing? Young and fun? More serious? Sound adds a powerful new dimension to brand identity. It also opens up new opportunities. You don&#8217;t need to have speech team to have speech as an interface. Anything that has a computer interface, you can replace or augment with voice.<\/p>\n<h4>5.Voice is the Great Equalizer<\/h4>\n<p>Every interface before voice had a learning curve \u2014 it takes time to learn to type, or navigate an app. Lindsay said the distinction for voice-tech is that if we can truly achieve a natural conversation experience, technology will be immediately accessible to everyone in the world with language skills.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"#RBCDisruptors: Hey Alexa, what&#039;s next for voice tech?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ERX1azMRRCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the latest RBC Disruptors event, Amazon VP Al Lindsay shared what to expect from a voice-first world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":5454,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"disable_focal_point":true,"featured_image_focal_point":{"x":0.5,"y":0.5},"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"rbc_tl_category":[109,100,110],"rbc_tl_tag":[99,103],"class_list":["post-5453","rbc_tl","type-rbc_tl","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rbc_tl_category-disruptors","rbc_tl_category-innovation","rbc_tl_category-season-one","rbc_tl_tag-innovation","rbc_tl_tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hey Alexa, What&#039;s Next for Voice Tech? Five Insights into a Voice-First World - RBC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/hey-alexa-whats-next-for-voice-tech-five-insights-into-a-voice-first-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hey Alexa, What&#039;s Next for Voice Tech? 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