The 2017 Voice Report is a look ahead at what to expect in the coming chat wars between companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Google, and Amazon. It’s also a survey of Google Assistant and Alexa users, and a look into why some startups make more successful Alexa skills than others.
The report was put together by VoiceLabs, a voice analytics startup tapped by Google for the launch of its Actions on Google, a platform for the creation of Google Assistant actions.
VoiceLabs works with developers making Google Assistant actions and Alexa skills. The company was created last year by Alexandre Linares and Adam Marchick shortly after Marchick stepped down as CEO of mobile marketing company Kahuna, which he cofounded in 2012. Combined, VoiceLabs customers serve more than a million people using devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home, Marchick told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
Here are 5 of the most interesting predictions from the 2017 Voice Report.
1. The next nine months will be incredibly important to the economic ecosystem emerging around intelligent assistants
Many consumers have not yet definitively decided which intelligent assistant they like best, but they have decided they aren’t interested in buying multiple AI-powered assistants. In its December 2016 survey of Amazon Echo and Google Home devices, VoiceLabs found that only 11 percent would be willing to buy a Google Home after buying an Amazon Echo and vice versa.
“What that means is that for the next nine months, it’s a winner-takes-entire-household market where whatever first device you buy in the home, there’s a good chance you’re going to stay loyal to that platform and buy more of that same platform,” Marchick told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “You’ll buy four Echo Dots to go with the Echo, so it makes getting devices out there in the next nine months critical.”
“It’s also an alarm bell to Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, that they’ve got to join the party, and they’ve got to do it quickly,” he said.
2. Push notifications and social connection will be the Pokémon Go of intelligent assistants
There are no breakout hits at the moment among the more than 8,000 Alexa skills and approximately 75 Google Assistant conversation actions, no killer app to be found.
“Right now the closest thing we have to Pokémon Go is Spotify and Amazon Music,” Marchick said.
Consistent with other studies, VoiceLabs found that about 45 percent of people…