Ever had a conversation with a voice assistant and found it’s been unable to understand your accent? If so, you’re not alone. In the UK, for instance, people with regional dialects find it hard to speak to audio devices like Siri and Alexa. According to a study, 79% of people with regional accents alter their voice to make sure they are understood by their digital assistants.  

Voice assistants have risen in popularity in recent years, with 2 in 5 adults using voice search daily. Users in other countries are struggling to hold a conversation with voice technology as well, which indicates there needs to be an improvement in the way voice devices comprehend different languages.

In the B2B marketing world, people are always looking to predict the next major trend, and the one that keeps cropping up is voice search. Voice assistant devices are becoming commonplace, and businesses are adapting to the way consumers are using the technology to shop online. Amazon Echo has established itself as a popular device. A swiss army knife of voice assistants, Echo integrates with Alexa to stream music, make phone calls, set alarms and do all manner of wonderful things that can be achieved with a few words.

A great addition to Echo is the presence of ‘skills’ that can be downloaded to achieve other tasks, like finding a lost phone. A skill that’s widely used on the Echo is Flash Briefing, which delivers pre-recorded news snippets from media outlets. From a B2B marketing perspective, this is huge.