According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, young people adopt a digital voice assistant more quickly, but use the voice technology less often compared to older users.
PwC’s research shows that users aged 18 to 24 were less likely to be classified as ‘heavy users’ than people aged between 25 and 49 and users aged 50 or older. Of the youngest group, 8 percent indicated that they only use a voice assistant a few times a year, compared to 6 percent for the group aged 25 to 49 and 3 percent for the group aged 50 and older.
Even though voice assistants are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly integrated into various devices and services, the research shows that users still mainly use their voice for simple basic commands, such as asking for the weather forecast, playing music or setting a timer. .
56 percent never check other smart home devices with the voice assistant and 50 percent say they never buy anything online with a voice assistant. The reasons for this are a lack of knowledge of the technology’s capabilities and a lack of trust. Men and young consumers are relatively more likely to experiment with such more advanced functionalities.
In general, people are quite familiar with voice technology: only 10 percent of respondents indicated that they were not familiar with products with voice assistants. Of the 90 percent who are familiar with it, a majority of 72 percent actually use voice assistants.
The smartphone is still most often used for this; 57 percent have given a voice command on their mobile phone. This is 29 percent for tablets and PCs, 27 percent for speakers and 21 percent for TV remotes.
According to the research, smart speakers are on the rise when it comes to the use of the voice assistant. Of those surveyed, 16 percent said they use their smartphone less often for voice commands, compared to 12 percent for speakers. Overall, 61 percent said they use their speakers more often compared to the first time using a voice assistant, compared to a lower figure for smartphones at 52 percent.
For the study, PwC used a group of 1000 representative Americans aged 18 to 64 years. They were able to fill out an online survey, after which PwC held two more focus group sessions.