One year ago, Google launched Duplex as a conversational AI application that calls people on your behalf, just like an average human would, astonishing quite a few people, thanks to its accuracy and genuineness. The unveiling of Duplex was just an opening act as far as Google’s extensive voice research is concerned. Google has several avenues to go down with study being led into fields wherein AI assistants communicate with customers on behalf of companies and even vice versa, where it helps consumer interact with businesses via an automated bot. So here’s a look at where Google is heading with its AI and Voice technology-based research and pioneering work.
Languages and Translation
Google Cloud also launched Contact Center AI to help customer service centres manage conversations with customers. They have been vying aggressive expansion strategies and got going with Android Go, which serves as a less extensive version of their Android OS and even gave it the power to convert text-to-speech and vice versa. Classic T9 phones are also being given the power of voice-recognition and conversion through this OS while the Google Assistant has added several native languages to its already extensive collection bringing the grand total to over 30 languages in over 80 countries. This had led to a 7x increase in market share and user count in India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil over the last couple of years as most of the newly included languages have been ones spoken widely in these countries.
Conversation Starter
Google’s Calljoy will help small enterprises utilise AI to automate their incoming call answering system taking some work off their employees. While it has been labelled an experiment, it is interesting to note that the widely popular Duplex was also called a test at the time of its launch hinting that the app could do very well for itself. All these add ons and features are helping to improve existing features such as Actions for conversational functions and Dialogflow, for automation of conversations. The company has also promised to put in more funding and effort to accelerate its voice strategy and also make Google Assistant 10 times faster to power more of such advanced functions and features.
Google Assists
- Driving Mode on Google Assistant and the inclusion of it on Google Maps will help drivers navigate through the traffic and locate remote areas with ease and more importantly, in a genuinely hands-free way.
- Live Relay, which is also powered by Google uses AI to help people with difficulties manage their phone calls proving how Google wants to break boundaries and work on technology that can help bridge the gap between the able and the disabled.
- Google Assistant’s Lens helps in translating text in over 100 languages, and their new device Nest Hub Max works somewhat like a smart speaker by using facial recognition software to personalise text and other functionalities.
All these features help in connecting businesses and customers in a truly fluid and seamless fashion, and it is very likely that such integration will determine the future of commerce in the years to come.
The Plan
Google seems to be propelling its voice strategy by pushing for innovation and at the same time, looking for ways to make it economically feasible by marketing it efficiently. Google Assistant has grown exponentially, and now we can hear and feel its presence in over a billion devices. While Amazon leads the way with respect to global sales of smart speakers by selling over 13.7 million speakers in the last quarter of 2018, in no way is Google far behind as the Strategy Analytics report states that the tech giant shipped over 11.5 million units.
Reason for Dominance
Google’s dominance comes from the market share it commands when it comes to smartphones as they remain the most prominent way we interact with such AI-powered technology. Siri and Google Assistant were ranked as the most popular AI assistants, followed closely by Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana hinting at just how important the smartphone business is when it comes to building a market share. Chrome, which supports Google voice control, reigns as the world’s favourite browser, and since over 2.5 billion people use Android, this cements Google’s place at the top of the table.
While Microsoft pitches its ideas for innovation to their existing client base which consists of a good share of companies from the Fortune 500 list, Google is breaking boundaries and interacting with enterprises from all over the world that serve millions of customers. This surge ahead is made possible thanks to their trinity of research efforts: search engine, smartphone, and browser making them an unstoppable force.It seems like the tech giant has won the war when it comes to voice-recognition and conversion technology by convincing the world that AI assistants are the way to go with regards to the future.