Alexa

NAB unveils computer generated ‘brand voice’ for contact centres
National Australia Bank now has a “brand voice”, a unique, lifelike sounding automated speech capability for its contact centres powered by cloud computing giant Amazon Web Services. The NAB voice, which can read out text in a natural way, sounds like a male Australian which, the bank says, is consistent

Voice Assistants Used to Control Smart Homes to Grow by 769 Per Cent, Juniper Says
The number of voice assistants used to access smart home devices will reach 555 million by 2024; up from 105 million in 2019, according to new data from Juniper Research. By 2024, Juniper Research expects more than 90 per cent of voice assistants to be used to control smart home

One Powerful Tip to Improve Every Business Strategy
I generally hate blog posts and articles that suggest there is a single trick, hack or tip that can change your world. (I swear if I see one more headline promising the one habit that can turn me into Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffet, my head will explode.) But, there

Digital Voice Assistants in Use to Triple to 8 Billion by 2023: Juniper
There will be 8 billion digital voice assistants in use by 2023, up from an estimated 2.5 billion at the end of 2018, according to a new report from Juniper Research. While smartphone assistants will be the largest platform by volume thanks to Google Assistant and Siri, Juniper’s new research

‘Alexa, call my lawyer!’ Are you legally liable if someone makes a purchase using your virtual assistant?
When Amazon launched its Alexa virtual assistant in 2014, it probably didn’t think that a bird would expose a potentially significant legal issue with the device. But an African grey parrot named Rocco, living in Blewbury, England, appears to have done just that. Last month, Rocco made headlines for his

Voice Assistants Used in Smart Homes to Grow 1,000% as Alexa Leads the Way
The adoption of voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant will be a key factor behind smart home growth, with 275 million voice assistant devices used to control smart homes by 2023. This is up from an estimated 25 million in 2018, a growth of 1,000 per cent. The

The rise of voice could silence FMCG brands: Deloitte
FMCG brands need to rethink the fundamentals of marketing to survive in a world of voice-based shopping. That’s the view of Vanessa Matthijssen, Deloitte Australia’s National Consumer Products Sector Lead and author of a new paper ‘Meaningful brands – connecting with the consumer in the new world’. “Brands must shift

Amazon’s Annual Shareholder Letter: Jeff Bezos Says Customer Expectations Will Continue To Rise
The rise of empowered customers that is impacting not just retail but most other industries, isn’t going to slow down any time soon. That’s the view of Jeff Bezos, who used used his annual letter to shareholders to highlight the company’s performance in 2017 and share how Amazon stays ahead

Amazon teases Prime launch as Marketplace and Alexa ecosystems grow
“When are you going to launch Prime?” That’s the number one request Amazon has gotten from customers since it launched in Australia five months ago. And the answer — according to Russ Grandinetti Amazon SVP, International Consumer — is soon. “I don’t have any news to report about Prime other

Voice assistants will have to build trust before we’re comfortable with them tracking us
We’re all used to targeted advertisements on the internet. But the introduction of voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant mean that companies are capturing all new kinds of data on us, and could build much more detailed “behaviour profiles” with which to target us. There is already a