Americans Show Growing Interest in Voice Assistants

"The next 10 years will be marked by a transition away from screen-based interfaces toward voice-based interfaces provided by digital assistants, such as Amazon Echo's Alexa, Google Home's Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana, Samsung's Bixby, and Apple's Siri. Mintel predicts that as consumers become more accustomed to interacting with digital assistants on smartphones and computers, interest in controlling their homes via voice command is likely to grow, becoming a central point in a long-term shift that will permanently alter how we interact with technology," said Billy Hulkower, senior technology and media analyst at Mintel, in a statement.

"As products like smart thermostats and smart earbuds gain in adoption, the expectation is that consumers will want their other personal and home smart devices to operate on the same software systems. Manufacturers and service providers currently focusing their research and development budgets on products that utilize this new interface stand to gain the most," continued Hulkower.

"The next phase in communications will lie with enabling users to create their own multimedia products, including video and augmented reality tags. Emoticons, voice interfaces, pinning and memes all provide early glimpses into what the future looks like – personal takes on news and popular culture are now part of communication itself, rather than just the subject of it. We're transitioning into a stylized, post-literate society in which digital communication is itself a form of art," concluded Hulkower.