Over the past year, voice recognition has shifted from being a rising trend to an industry standard in the connected living space. In words of Lisa Chesters, from Sigma Designs, it’s been “a serious game-changer” which is helping the market expand beyond early adopters and reach mass adoption. And there is a reason for this: consumers love their voice-controlled assistants; they are simple, intuitive and very easy to use. But voice control is not only a consumer favorite, it is also a very valuable asset for service providers looking for ways to grow their business, increase revenue streams and differentiate themselves from competitors. That’s why “2018 will be the year for manufacturers, retailers, and installers to leverage the popularity of these voice assistants”.
Voice has endless applications in the connected living industry, from connected home solutions, to professional security, to elderly care. It has already become the favorite user interface for home control, offering a viable alternative to smartphones and apps, due to its increasing reliability and convenience. Voice recognition also has the potential to become a cornerstone in the professional security industry, where it will soon be used to remotely manage home security and safety devices. Regarding the telecare industry, voice is already helping drive growth thanks to advancements in communication and connectivity technologies, and developments in healthcare wearables. A smart care system equipped with voice recognition allows a senior in distress to call for help just by using a short command, such as “call 911”, removing the need of pressing a button and thus adding another safety layer to the overall telecare solution.
With its huge potential and the favor of the public on its side, there is no doubt that voice control has become a valuable asset (if not an essential requirement) for service providers that offer —or aim to offer— connected living solutions to their customers. It is not only a reliable management solution for home control and security systems, and an added safety layer for elderly care, but also a unique way to differentiate from competitors in what has already become a rather crowded market. Voice control also offers great flexibility in its business model and there are different ways to create value from it. Some service providers, for example, are already profiting on voice technology either by making it a premium option within the existing solution, or by building a complete solution around it.
The added value and differentiation provided by voice helps service providers improve customer loyalty, increase ARPU and provide a better service to end customers. We invite you to meet us at CES 2018 and discover how to leverage voice into business growth. We will be launching the latest integration of our WeR@Home solution with Google Assistant as well as showcasing our Voice Panic Detector for the Care@Home system to enhance our connected living solutions for home control, professional security and senior care. Click to set a meeting!
