What’s Voice Technology & Why Your Company Needs It

Speech recognition technology has grown incredibly sophisticated—and popular. Many of us regularly take advantage of voice software on our phones and other devices through voice assistants. The widespread use of speech recognition tools presents an opportunity for companies to develop voice technology strategies that expand customer communication.

Businesses can use intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) to directly improve customer experience (CX). These IVAs use voice tools to provide customers with intuitive self-service options around the clock. They can make product recommendations based on the customers’ activities and habits, analyze customer conversations to learn about their preferences, offer tailored follow-ups based on past interactions, and identify leads for sales leaders. 

With both businesses and customers benefiting at the same time, IVAs have completely changed the landscape of customer service. 

Advances in Voice Technology and Speech Recognition: A Recent History

Speech recognition technology has come a long way since Apple introduced Siri over a decade ago. Our phones, laptops, and other smart devices use voice software in various ways. Speech recognition has helped make some tools so intuitive that using them quickly becomes second nature.

For humans, interpreting speech comes naturally. In everyday conversation, we actually mishear one to two out of every 20 words spoken—but our brains are so good at using the surrounding context that we do not even notice.

For computers, however, it is a different story. Voice software does not have a human brain with a highly evolved language center. Voice tools cannot use visual cues to help fill in conversational context. In recent years, though, AI has driven major advancements and applications of voice technology for businesses and consumers.

Examples of AI-Powered Voice Technology in Action

AI-powered voice assistants and tools have revolutionized how we do our daily tasks. Whether that involves chores at home or work at the office, a simple voice command can pull up any piece of information, open apps, control devices, and more. 

Below are some of the best technology corporations out there that have integrated AI voice technology into our daily lives in the past decade.

Google’s Assistant 

Following its debut in 2016, Google Assistant has been continuously evolving to perform a wide range of tasks. In addition to using Google apps to send emails and messages, make phone calls, play music, provide directions and navigations, set reminders and alarms, tell the weather, and answer general questions, Google Assistant can control smart speakers and smart home devices. It also supports several third-party apps to find items, confirm their availability or inventory stocks, place orders, perform check-ins, etc. 

The biggest advantage Google Assistant has over its voice technology competitors is that it is available on most Android devices. Since Android devices dominate the market, you can purchase any new Android-powered phone to start commanding apps with your voice.

Amazon’s Alexa

Introduced a couple of years before Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa is one of the most popular and widely recognized AI-powered voice assistants in the world. It can perform all basic tasks such as providing news and weather updates, answering general questions, playing music, and setting alarms. Its main advantage, though, is the direct integration with Amazon services. Alexa can easily find and order products from the Amazon marketplace, offer updates on deliveries, and most importantly, control smart speakers and sound systems which account for over 80 percent of the speaker market. It is yet to be widely used on mobile devices like Google Assistant or Apple Siri.

Apple’s Siri

Apple introduced Siri as the first virtual voice assistant of its type back in 2011. It comes bundled as a primary feature with every new Apple device, including the Apple Watch, the Macbook, and of course, the iPhone and iPad. Siri uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to simulate human-like conversation. It is a powerful conversational AI tool that has greatly evolved over the years. 

Siri can do everything you can expect from a virtual assistant. It can make phone calls, send messages, write emails, set alarms, provide directions, play music, answer questions from the internet, etc. It replaces almost every touch input to let you control your Apple device with voice commands. Siri can also control your smart home devices such as security systems, lighting, remotes, switches, etc. 

MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience)

MBUX is a cutting-edge infotainment multimedia system installed by Mercedes in their top-of-the-line vehicles. It allows you to use voice and gestures to perform a variety of tasks such as accessing multimedia controls, configuring displays, pulling up key information for the car, etc. 

MBUX also has full smartphone integration to let you access your smart devices such as phones or tablets to make calls, send messages, provide directions, play music, and more. 

Most importantly, MBUX is AI-powered. It is designed to learn your traits and habits. This allows it to suggest faster routes to common destinations such as your office and home, radio stations or music playlists, and nearby locations such as gyms and restaurants based on the time. 

Bank of America’s Erica

Erica is the name given to a highly advanced AI virtual assistant developed by Bank of America. It is another conversational AI example that uses machine learning and natural language processing algorithms to generate human-like responses. Initially developed to help clients with their basic bank servicing needs, Erica has since then evolved to deliver a more intuitive and tailored customer service experience by offering advanced money management assistance. 

Other Use Cases in Different Industries

• The justice system has started using AI-powered transcription software to record and transcribe legal proceedings. It can distinguish between many speakers present in the same room, remove noise from the back, ignore common interruptions, and more to provide highly accurate transcriptions. 
• AI-powered dictation tools are being used by Law enforcement to record findings at crime scenes. Similar to the aforementioned transcription software, these dictation tools can automatically recognize the voice of each officer on the scene while ignoring environmental noise. 
• Banks are investing in voice recognition software to boost their security features. Since the human voice has countless unique elements, it is much harder to hack compared to a text password.
• The government and national security agencies have been using voice recognition technology for over a decade to identify spies and terrorists.

How Speech Recognition Technology Shapes Consumer Behaviors

In the U.S., most people who have adopted voice tools use them daily, but these impressive usage numbers come with an interesting caveat. Most people do not use speech recognition technology to shop. 

In a voice consumer survey from 2022, only about one in 10 individuals from a pool of 6,000 respondents revealed themselves to be using speech recognition technology to purchase items, most often to book concert tickets. 

Amazon, as one prominent example of companies shaping voice technology, cut several hundred jobs in its Alexa division last year. Several voice initiatives for Alexa were also axed. Google, as another example, has reportedly been scaling down its investments in Google Assistant and removed nearly 20 voice command features in 2024.

While consumers generally don’t use voice technology to make purchases, they still want to speak with companies on the phone. They also enjoy the immediacy and convenience that voice tools provide. By integrating voice technology into their platforms, businesses can communicate with customers according to their expectations. Meeting those expectations is a critically important driver in the overall customer experience.

How Voice Tools Can Enhance Customer Experience

As mentioned above, the frankly surprising reality is that consumers do not want to use speech recognition tools at the time of purchase. Hence, when developing a cohesive voice technology strategy that takes full advantage of advances in conversational AI, one question looms large: What do consumers want from voice tools?

Customers want convenience and control. They also want self-service options that let them resolve issues quickly, anytime and anywhere, without speaking with a representative. When you consider the benefits of voice tools, it makes perfect sense that customers like using IVAs in a self-service context.

Customers benefit from voice technology because it is:

• Fast and convenient. No matter when or where a customer decides to reach out, self-service with IVAs means they don’t face a risk of getting stuck on hold.
• Easy to use. Conversational AI understands customers, not menus. Talking to IVAs is easier than typing (let alone going somewhere in person).
• Efficient: Customers don’t have to worry about getting transferred to different agents and being obligated to repeat themselves over and over.
• Intuitive: With the AI-powered advancements in speech recognition technology, the best IVAs are now so good that customers can speak in their own accents and at their own pace.

Today’s sophisticated IVAs meet customers where they are. Now customers can get immediate answers to their questions and quick resolutions to their concerns. Voice technology helps keep customer satisfaction levels high. In addition, it helps both minimize costs and outperform KPIs.

The Financial Benefits of Voice Technology for Businesses

Taking advantage of speech recognition technology is not just about elevating CX. It is also about what voice software does for your bottom line. Let’s take a quick look at the financial benefits voice technology—specifically IVAs that harness AI in voice interactions—can bring to your business.

Increase Productivity

IVAs automate service and can support multiple customers simultaneously. Your contact center can take more calls and address more customers, but this is about more than just volume. Conversational AI facilitates intuitive conversations that resolve customer issues. This lightens the load for customer service agents and gives them time to focus on more complex tasks, ultimately improving your overall productivity metrics. 

Outperform KPIs

IVAs help customer service ops increase efficiency across interactions. Voice technology with conversational AI can be used to acquire data during customer interactions and then use that data to help predict customer behaviors and preferences.

Minimize Infrastructure Cost

IVAs do more than increase the number of successful customer interactions. They also improve the overall quality of service. Since they do this without adding headcount, IVAs functionally enhance your scope of service without added infrastructure expenses.

What Does the Future Hold for Voice Technology and Speech Recognition?

The past decade has seen technology leaders invest heavily in AI and machine learning to produce sophisticated conversational AI that responds to voice commands for various activities. Several industries are already benefiting from AI and voice technology. In the future, as AI continues to evolve, voice and speech recognition technology can be expected to become even more advanced to solve highly complex problems. 

The healthcare industry, for example, is using AI to identify speech patterns consistent with Parkinson's disease. AI-powered healthcare voice assistants are being used to offer up-to-date medical information about symptoms, drug effects, medicine alternatives, therapeutic recommendations, etc. They can also identify emotional states in your speech to predict medical conditions such as depression, heart disease, and other ailments. 

Digital security is also expected to reap a lot of benefits from voice recognition technology. Text-based passwords might become a thing of the past with users using voice commands to make online purchases, access their bank accounts, or make online transactions.

Additionally, search algorithms might be changed for voice-targeted results. You might see more personalized voice advertisements as technology starts identifying different voice profiles, their tones, and their context.

The world has already been moving towards digitization. As more smart devices penetrate the masses, more opportunities arrive each day to use voice commands for the same daily activities. In the future, voice technology will not be an optional, but a necessary feature. From taking care of our health to improving our justice system to keeping us safe to asking for route information from a virtual assistant on the bus, voice technology will completely revolutionize how we interact with the world around us in the next decade.

How Conversational AI-Powered Voice Technology Tools by Mosaicx Offer Value

Voice software and IVAs create new avenues to optimize CX. Companies can build relationships with their customers by letting them use the communication tool they prefer most: their own voice.

In the big picture, this is more than optimizing processes and minimizing costs. IVAs speak with your customers and help you understand your customers’ wants and needs. These dual benefits make developing a cohesive voice technology strategy important for long-term success. IVAs can help provide your customers with the experiences they want while paving the way for sustained growth in the process.

The future of self-service is unfolding at an incredible rate. Voice technology tools powered by conversational AI will continue to elevate CX to new heights. Mosaicx provides your customers with the personalized self-service interactions they desire—including voice technology tools.