The conversational
revolution T The rise of voice interfaces he use of computers and
more powerful: their ears and voices.
by the end of 2020, it was four-and-a-half
mobile devices has become
These allow for a nearly limitless range of
billion. This pattern of adoption not only
so ingrained into our reflexes,
expression and comprehension – and beg the
rivals, but rather exceeds the last digital
that few give thought to
question: why don’t we use them to interface
revolution of mobile devices.
the fact that modern graphic interfaces –
with our digital ‘counterparts’? After all,
regardless of how well they’re implemented
we’ve been speaking for 1.75 million years!
– are in effect straightjackets. They starkly
in Natural Language Processing technologies
narrow the full possible spectrum of human
algorithms were implemented nearly 70
and the development of Conversational
expression and interactions into a single
years ago, the use of voice interfaces was
Design as a body of knowledge have
focused command, such as a mouse click,
until very recently at best a stultifying
combined to make voice interfaces pleasant
in order to execute a single command
experience – and at worst, a wholly irritating
and reliable to use. Consumers are re-
and perform a function on the device and
one. Currently however, voice interfaces are
learning their modes of interaction and
application involved.
enjoying an exponential rate of acceptance,
– increasingly often – using pre-existing
with the number of applications and voice-
voice interfaces at home and underway.
touchscreen: all interactions with these input
enabled devices reliably doubling every
This learning curve is vastly easier to master
aids are artificial in nature and functionally
year since 2018. For instance, the number
compared to learning to operate a computer
highly limited. Luckily, human beings possess
of voice-capable devices in the world was
– humans need no instruction on how to use
input and output ‘devices’ which are much
roughly two billion towards the end of 2019;
their voices!
Be it a keyboard, a mouse, trackball or
6
Even though the first voice recognition
The reasons behind this astonishing rate of adoption are twofold: vast improvements
RETAIL-MERCHANDISER.COM