Voice-Activated Technology Must Advance to Support Hybrid
Post-2020, there have been massive shifts in how we work, learn, and interact with the world. Virtual assistance or voice commands integrated into devices.
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Key takeaways
- Post-2020, there have been massive shifts in how we work, learn, and interact with the world.
- Sir was followed by Amazon’s Alex and other devices that used modern speech recognition technologies and became a part of several devices.
- Alex for Business and Zoom for Homeand Cortanaare examples of integrating virtual assistants with smart devices and office/home workspaces.
Post-2020, there have been massive shifts in how we work, learn, and interact with the world. Remote working, streaming services, and online deliveries did exist even before that, but now they have become mainstream and “better alternatives.” People who spent over 10 hours a day in offices/schools or outside their homes now prefer to stay at home and depend on technology to conduct daily activities, including performing jobs or running businesses. Virtual assistance or voice commands integrated into devices have made these technologies more convenient to use. Voice assistance, touch-less payments, and self-checkout kiosks are the new staple, but how inclusive are these technologies and what lies ahead for voice and speech-activated technologies?
Let’s take a look at the future of hybrid workplaces, how the voice-and-speech activated technologies have evolved over the years, and how diversity and inclusion in hybrid workspaces can be elevated with technology.
Companies Are Now Supporting Hybrid Workplace #
Discussions around hybrid working models are increasing as companies and employees contemplate the success of the remote or hybrid models. The pandemic may or may not be over, but remote working is here to stay in some form or the other. There is no doubt that technology-based companies are the first to adopt the remote working models as they are already used to Zoom, Slack, SharePoint and other similar applications. But does this work for more “traditional” companies and sectors too?
Companies that support the hybrid working models are again of different types – the office-centric, the flexible hybrid, the remote-friendly hybrid and the virtual-first, depending on the systems in place and also the senior management’s approach towards remote working. The hybrid-remote option is the most popular because it gives employees greater flexibility to work at their own convenience and avoid certain challenges that come with office working – lengthy commutes, inflexible working hours, daycare for children, and so on.
The transition to hybrid remote working is interesting – it started suddenly with mandatory all-remote and ended with some companies practically giving up all of their working spaces altogether and embracing complete remote working (3M, Aquent, Atlassian, Coinbase, among others). The current trend supports a hybrid model by both employees and employers because no one is sure of the future anymore. The hybrid model gives companies the flexibility to go back to either all-remote or all-office, depending on the requirement. Some companies that have adopted the hybrid working model are HubSpot, Dropbox, Reddit, Shopify, Twitter, Slack, Grammarly, Mailchimp, Adobe, LinkedIn, Uber, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Unilever, Zoom, Deloitte and many more.
How Has Voice Technology Evolved Over the Years? #
Post the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for voice and speech recognition technology has steadily increased and is expected to reach over $20.9 Billion by 2026, up from $7.7 Billion in 2020. The increasing use of smart devices and extensive adaptation of mobile technology are responsible for an almost 18% CAGR for this market. Rapid advancements in this technology, enabling devices to recognize speech patterns, accent, pitch, and even speaking styles using Machine Learning, NLP (Natural Language Processing), and Artificial Intelligence have contributed to more and more of its adoption in all kinds of devices. Furthermore, its applications in IoT (Internet of Things) devices, smart wearable, automobiles and in-car systems and biometric devices are likely to boom as the technology advances.
The development of speech and voice recognition technology dates back to the 1950s when Bell Laboratories developed “Audrey,” a system that could recognize 1-9 numbers when spoken aloud. The next major advancement was the creation of IBM’s “Shoebox” in the early 1970s, which used the sound and pitch of phonemes to construct a word and then match it against reprogrammed information to determine what word was being said. In the 1970s, the Department of Defense invested in the DARPA’s Speech Understanding Research program resulting in the development of “Harpy,” a system that could understand over 1000 words.
The 1970s and 1980s saw much more advancement in speech and voice recognition technologies and made their way into children’s toys - Speak & Spell and Julie doll, the latter being advanced enough to distinguish between different speakers. The major leap in voice recognition technology came when developers started using NLP with algorithms to program systems that become educated in syntactic, semantic, and tonal rules. The Hidden Markov Model, for instance, uses statistics and probability to understand a specific sound like a word. These were big steps above using just sound to recognize the words. In 1990, Dragon brought out the “Dragon Dictate” speech recognition system and the “Naturally Speaking” system in 1997. Despite these advancements, there was no practical application of this technology on a large scale, even by big enterprises, because of their limited processing power and memory and challenges in recognizing global accents.
Google’s Voice Search App, released in 2010, paved the way for modern cloud-based speech recognition technology. Its success led to the development of Sir in 2011, which was hugely successful across the world for its ability to interpret speech patterns and process natural utterances accurately. Sir was followed by Amazon’s Alex and other devices that used modern speech recognition technologies and became a part of several devices. The best part is that they support a wide range of languages and accents with amazing accuracy.
Voice-Activated Technology for Supporting Diversity and Inclusion in Workspaces #
So, what do these advancements in voice and speech recognition mean to the modern man? Will they make lives easier? Will they make learning smarter? And will they recognize the diversity of the global workforce? The answer is “Yes” to all of these, says Michelle Arentz, owner of Lazarus Learning LLC. Speaking about the pandemic and how it has affected many workers and students who had to go “online” suddenly, Ms. Arentz feels that text-to-speech technologies can play a very crucial role in online learning support, communication among and with frontline workers, and the work-from-home situations.
Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) is a terrific tool for making products accessible to and usable by as many people as possible, says Cathy Pearl, head of conversation design outreach at Google. Ms. Pearl says that although AI-powered VUI devices provide convenience to the average user by enabling a more frictionless and natural experience, the future of VUIs includes a much bigger stage: empowering the people who need it the most. They have the ability to make people with motor or mobility and visual impairments become more independent and also more inclusive in the workplace. This becomes all the more relevant in the remote hybrid working models based on effective communication, collaboration, and productivity that these voice-activated technology devices can promote.
Voice-Activated Technologies in Hybrid Workspaces #
Voice-activated technologies can be a boon for hybrid workspaces as they can help to connect the employee with the work environment from anywhere seamlessly. For instance, Tact.ai is a hands-free, voice-activated software that can automatically dig up information from emails, research reports, and archives. Similarly, ServiceNow in Singapore has installed voice-activated booking systems where meeting rooms can be set up remotely, complete with a video system. Automated security clearances, maintenance checks, ordering office supplies, adjusting ambient light and temperature based on occupancy, troubleshooting systems, onboarding new employees, rolling out updates, and technical support can all be managed remotely through voice controls. Skill-driven workspaces like hospitals and factories can pull up critical data through voice commands without any manual intervention.
Future advancements in voice-enabled technologies should be based on developing algorithms that
- Recognize a number of dialects and accents, including speech impediments,
- Have speakers that can navigate ambient noise and background voices, 3. Integrate the technology with laptops and computers used in the workplaces,
- Offer more safety and security features integrated within the technology,
- Provide acoustically optimized workstations or special spaces, and
- Create teach-enabled meeting rooms that voice commands can control- the possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
Voice and speech-activated technologies have no doubt come a long way with advancements and are set to revolutionize modern workspaces. Hybrid working models are here to stay because they provide the balance between how things were and how they are now. The idea behind voice-enabled technologies is to make this hybrid working successful and also improve employees’ productivity by letting them do a myriad of activities with simple, hands-free commands. Alex for Business and Zoom for Homeand Cortanaare examples of integrating virtual assistants with smart devices and office/home workspaces.
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