A review of retail trends among US consumers prepared by comScore reveals that voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Home may not be quite ready to help consumers transact in meaningful ways.
While the price points to acquire these devices and the buzz around them have made them popular household gadgets, and 77% of owners say they really like having smart speakers in their homes, most of those who own the devices are not using them for consumer transactions.
The top 5 most common uses are: checking weather (81%), asking general questions (77%), streaming music (74%), Timers/alarms (60%), news or sports updates (48%).
Only 18% will use their home smart speaker to find local businesses or make reservations.
That said, as many as 30% of owners have used the home assistant device to buy something, 13% of them to buy food/service, but financially sensitive activities raise security concerns among consumers.
For travel brands, this may mean that having a position in the voice assistant landscape is less meaningful unless the function is directly related to common queries such as weather at the destination, a countdown to the holiday, traffic advice when heading for the airport, or specific travel tips.
While voice search is buzzy, it’s not ready for prime time. Probably the best use of time is to explore entertaining applications that play-up to how users use devices.
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