Voice Activated Technology: How its Changing Lives

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that voice-activated technology was the stuff of sci-fi dreams.

Yet, here we are in 2019 and the technology has grown and expanded in directions that few could have predicted just a few short years ago.

One area where voice-activated technology is seeing significant uptake is the hotel and hospitality industry, but there are still specific barriers – language and translation, for example – to overcome. Make no mistake though, the course is set; the future of consumer electronics is going to be all about voice.

Demand is Driving Development

There are a couple of factors pushing voice-activated technology forward and those are primarily consumer demand and the cloud.

A recent Technavio report outlined the massive rise in consumer interest around voice-activated technology and points to 2016 as a pivotal year for speech recognition systems. This was when most major voice-activated technology companies pushed their devices over the cloud, allowing for increased computational power and greater insight into user behaviour. This gave voice-activated devices the ability -like Amazon’s Echo, for example -to feedback what a user wanted from the technology and whether they used the results provided. In short, this gave providers of the technology more data with which to shape the experiences and results they provide.

The same report also showed that the global market for speech recognition technology – fuelled by consumer demand – will grow at a CAGR of more than 28-percent from 2017-2021.

That means more usage of the technology and, in turn, more insightful data manufacturers can use to improve the experience. This will inevitably mean a considerable shift towards voice commerce and a changing landscape for many retailers and organisations.

The Hotel & Hospitality Industries

When it comes to travel and hospitality, there are clear benefits to voice-activated technology, as long as it can provide a complete experience for all users. That means a need for efficient, accurate translation.

Numerous large hotel chains are already bringing voice-activated technology into their sites, with Marriot placing Amazon Echo units in some US locations. Bigger, bolder solutions are also on the horizon in the form of Best Western’s voice-activated hotel rooms to set alarms, play music and more.

But the hospitality and hotel sectors have to cater to people of all nationalities, and is that feasible? It is, and the solution may already be here. Mymanu CLIK S offers users the ability to access live voice and text translation in 37 languages, all in high fidelity and from totally wireless earbuds. This technology could prove hugely useful to the hotel and hospitality sectors as an efficient and holistically beneficial technology.