We are in the early stages of witnessing the convergence of voice-enabled technology into business.
The technology has already entered our households in the last decade of sorts and there is tremendous growth to capitalise on that by several companies with their Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The surge of demand to figure out how voice-enabled technology can be used in Business is the next big thing. The evolution of voice-enabled technology for Enterprise is currently in the first wave of transformation.
There are companies already out there investing into the realm of figuring out how can it be used, what are the early nuances that can be built in, how can it improve efficiency, what are the accelerators that can provide ROI etc. This is changing the paradigm of things and making voice-enabled technology the forefront of discussion in the technology sector.
From amplifying customer experience, improving labour productivity, driving efficiency, and augmenting human aptitude to name a few, there is a multitude of several benefits that can be offered to the needs of a successful enterprise.
Today’s workforce spends a lot of time on non-value-added activities that are very administrative in nature leaving them less time to focus on value-added activities. Voice-enabled technology can reduce or eliminate the non-value-added activities through automation built in the form of accelerators so the workforce can spend more time to come up with solutions meaningful for the company and their business thereby driving more revenue.
Data Heuristics built into deep learning can augment human aptitude to deliver solutions with speed to market, reduced operational costs and better profitability. Digital transformation provided new avenues to connect between producers and consumers enhancing the scale at which providers can personalise the experience for their customers. Deep learning combined with predictable algorithms can drive consumer behaviour to a successful outcome for the producer to amplify customer experience and increased revenue.
Business operations can be repetitive but important to be done. Simple tasks like setting up meetings, sending emails, office management, ordering supplies, centralising invoices and several other tasks can be efficiently done today driving efficiency and streamlining processes with improved controls.
As businesses integrate themselves with systems even more, voice-enabled technology can serve as common denominator through seamless integration and availability uncovering synergies around business models and coming up with relationship hierarchies.
Non-functional aspects like performance, reliability, portability and maintenance are some of the foundational elements for artificial intelligence with scope of improvement. However, other non-functional aspects like interoperability should be defined with varying levels of flexibility for each service provisioned through this technology. The amount of security that needs to be built in, the choices for multiple technology solutions on the same product, conversational AI and the usage of it will have to be bundled together to deliver the business a value-driven experience to invest for the future.
The evolution of this technology in Business can be classified into waves where wave 1 of companies are called “discoverers” who would like to explore to see the possibilities that can be offered and make plans as part of their strategic initiatives. Wave 2 of the companies are called “followers” who would like to jump into it if there is a definitive value case. We are currently in wave 1 of the equation. While the progress in the discoverers wave is not as swift as expected, the progression will be slow before wave 2 picks up.
Today, the role of voice-enabled technology in Business should be considered as something that will slowly be adopted but the gains and efficiencies that it can bring in will be worthwhile.
Sunil Tanuku is a Judge at the International Customer Experience Awards 2020.