MUMBAI: In the past few years, India has witnessed a rapid rise in its internet consumption, leading to the emergence of voice technology and the ways in which it is consumed across the country. There is a dire need to understand how the audiences interact and perceive voice technology with an increase in its adoption and growing usage across India. From voice-assistant-enabled feature phones to connected devices like Alexa and Google Home, the ecosystem is taking an encouraging turn, and thus, opening up many more avenues for brands and businesses.

WATConsult, the globally awarded hybrid digital agency from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network India (DAN), under its market research division, Recogn, has launched its latest report, titled ‘Voice Technology in India: Now and Future - Consumer and business perspective’.  The main objective of this report is to share deep insights on voice-tech usage patterns, to consult brands and to help businesses make better decisions.  The report focuses on the market of voice technology in India, the perception of voice assistants, home management with the use of voice and data security concerns. It also highlights the usage patterns of voice -tech across most-used voice assistants including shopping recommendations.

The agency has integrated with Google Assistant for the launch of this report and will be made available with a bot command.

Below are some of the key findings from the report:

·  Speech and voice recognition technology market stands at Rs. 149.95 Cr as of December 2019

·  It is expected to grow at 40.47% to reach Rs. 210.63 Cr by the end of 2020

·  76% of the users are familiar with the speech and voice recognition technology

·  On an average, users are interacting with voice assistants on various devices for at least a year’s time

·  The users residing in Top Metros have been using the voice assistants for around more than a year

·  60% of the users give voice commands on their smartphones. Users of the Google Assistant use it for results on their queries and check for navigation while travelling

·  Even at this early stage, the majority of users (49%) prefer a combo of speaking and typing that occurs frequently, especially on phones.  38% of users prefer to speak their queries aloud

·  On a daily basis, voice assistants are frequently used to listen to music (65%), get daily news and updates (64%)

·  When it comes to usage patterns, most of the users search for queries online and are comfortable to use assistants indoors

·  Google Assistant is perceived to be smart, intelligent and helpful in search queries

·  Alexa is perceived as a reliable assistant in terms of managing smart home devices and usability by its users

·  Majority of the users have considered product/service recommendations from the voice assistant and shopped online

·  46% of the users feel that voice assistant on their devices are always recording and listening. The users are conscious about their privacy and feel that the tech companies are not safe. They do not feel secure in terms of their data being used elsewhere.

WATConsult CEO Heeru Dingra said, “We are glad to bring across our latest report in the space of voice technology and have for the first time integrated our report with Google Assistant. Voice marketing has indeed changed the dynamics of the digital marketing landscape and is growing at a fast pace. This report is a one-stop store for brands and industry leaders to understand the growing crescendos of the voice-tech market, giving them a detailed analysis of user behaviour and patterns to abide by.”