Predictions

  • 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020 according to comscore

  • About 30% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020. via Mediapos

  • We estimate there will be 21.4 million smart speakers in the US by 2020 according to Activate

  • By 2019, the voice recognition market will be a $601 million industry, according to a report from Technavio via Skyword.

  • This year (2017), 25 million devices will be shipped, bringing the total number of voice-first devices to 33 million in circulation. based on a new study by VoiceLabs via Mediapost

Current Usage

  • Google voice search queries in 2016 are up 35x over 2008 according to Google trends via Search Engine Watch

  • 55% of teens and 40% of adults use voice search every day. - Google

  • 40% of adults now use voice search once per day according to Location World

  • 33 million voice-first devices (e.g., Amazon Echo, Google Home) are now in circulation – up from 8 million in 2016. - 2017 study by VoiceLabs

  • Cortana now has 133 million monthly users according to Microsoft/Tech Radar

  • In May 2016, 1 in 5 searches on an Android app in the USA were through speech according to KPCB

  • 25% of 16-24s use voice search on mobile via Global Web Index

  • 41% of people using voice search have only started in the last 6 months according to MindMeld

  • 60% of people using voice search have started in the last year according to MindMeld

  • 11% of people using voice search started more than 3 years ago according to MindMeld

  • 19% of people use Siri at least daily. (HubSpot, 2015) (Source: )

  • 9% of users said that they’ve used AI personal assistants like Siri or Cortana in the past dayaccording to AYTM

  • 45% of those who have used AI personal assistants said they’ve used Siri. 33% have used Google Now. 27% used Microsoft’s Cortana. 10% have used Amazon Echo or Alexa. via AYTM

  • 1 in 5 online adults have used voice search on their mobile in the last month via Global Web Index

  • 37% use Siri, 23% use Microsoft’s Cortana AI, and 19% use Amazon’s Alexa AI at least monthly. (HubSpot, 2015) (Source: )

  • We estimate that 325.8 million people used voice control in the past month according to Global Web Index (that’s almost 10% of the online population according to Internet Stats).

  • We estimate that the retail giant (Amazon) has sold 5.1 million of the smart speakers in the U.S since it launched in 2014 according to CIRP via Geekwire.

  • Amazon sold approximately 2 million units in the first nine months of 2016 according to CIRP

  • Amazon sold 4.4 million Echo units in its first full year of sales according to Geek Wire

  • 25% of searches on Windows 10 taskbar are voice. On desktop! according to 

  • Only around a third of smartphone owners use their personal assistants regularly, even though 95% have tried them at some point. according to Creative Strategies via The Economist

  • Only 11% of respondents who already own an Amazon Alexa or Google Home device will also buy a competing device. via Voicelabs.

  • “Application growth for Amazon Alexa has been impressive – over 500% in the second half of 2016″ according to Voicelabs.

  • Evercore estimates 500,000 Google Home units shipped in 2016 via Bloomberg

  • 65 percent of people who own an Amazon Echo or Google Home can’t imagine to going back to the days before they had a smart speaker. via Geomarketing.com

  • 42 percent say voice-activated devices have quickly becomeessential” to their lives. via Geomarketing.com

Intent

  • Mobile voice-related searches are 3X more likely to be local-based than text via Search Engine Watch

  • But just 13 percent of smart speaker owners use their smart speakers to find a local businessaccording to an NPR survey via Geomarketing.com

  • Home Alone and Elf were the most requested 2016 holiday movies with Alexa. via Amazon

  • Customers use Amazon Echo for many purposes, with one-third using it as an information provider responding to questions and over 40% as an audio speaker for listening to streaming music. according to CIRP.

  • Nearly 50% of people are now using voice search when researching products. via Social Media Today

  • High consumer usage of voice assistants in autos (51%) and household (39%) indicates increased comfort with the technology – according to Activate via WSJ.

  • Google’s AI has been reading nearly 3,000 romance novels in order to improve its conversational search abilities via Click Hub

  • ‘Personal assistants’ is the top marketing search of 2016″ according to Bing via Econsultancy

Reason

  • Humans can speak 150 words per minute vs type 40 words per minute via Katherine Watier

  • 28% think voice search is a more accurate way of searching via Katherine Watier

  • 43% cite that using voice search is quicker than using a website or an app via Katherine Watier

  • 42% say that use while driving is a reason for using voice search Katherine Watier

  • 21% don’t like typing on their mobile phone and so turn to voice search via Katherine Watierand Statista, 2015 (Source: )

  • 82 percent of Amazon Echo smart speaker owners subscribe to Amazon Prime via Geomarketing.com

Errors

  • outside 35% of normal recognition errors, 31% were noise related and 22% were pronunciation related according to Research Gate

  • Today, speech recognition word error rate is 8 percent. via Bruce Clay

  • Fifteen years ago quality had stalled, with word-error rates of 20-30%. Microsoft’s latest system, which has six neural networks running in parallel, has reached 5.9% (see chart), the same as a human transcriber’s. via The Economist


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