Why Consumers Are Embracing Voice Assistants in Their Lives

1. Conversational Commerce
Why Consumers Are Embracing
Voice Assistants in Their Lives
Telford, 26 September
Amol Khadikar, Manager,
Capgemini Research Institute

2. 2Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved.
About the conversational commerce
research
Consumer survey
We surveyed 5,041 consumers (aged
18 or above) across four countries–
France, Germany, the United Kingdom,
and the United States.
Consumer focus groups
We conducted four virtual focus groups
with consumers, one each for France,
Germany, the United Kingdom, and the
United States. Each group had a mix of
eight to ten users and non-users.

3. Voice assistants are about to
revolutionize commerce

4. 4Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Dec. 2016:
Amazon Alexa devices become the
best-selling products across all
categories on Amazon.com during the
holiday season
Advances in voice recognition have fuelled growth in voice assistants
Source: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and other company websites and press releases. Kleiner Perkins, Internet Trends 2017, May 2017.
Google voice recognition data as of 5/17/17 and refers to recognition accuracy for English language.
Google voice recognition accuracy 2013-17 Human accuracy threshold
2013 2015 2016 2017
Wordaccuracyrate(%)
95%95%
100%
90%
80%
June 2014:
Domino’s launches voice
ordering via its mobile apps
Nov. 2014:
Amazon launches Amazon
Echo for Prime subscribers
May. 2016:
Google Home launches,
powered by Google
Assistant
Jul. 2016:
Amazon launches voice
ordering via Amazon Echo
for Prime products
June 2017:
Apple Siri
available on 375
million devices
Sep 2017:
Alexa Skills cross
20,000 mark in
US
Oct. 2017:
Amazon and Google launch
new classes of smart
speakers and extend them
to new geographies
2017:
Retailers foraying into voice ordering—
Walmart, Target, Sephora, Ocado, Costco,
Walgreens, Petsmart, among many others
2014

5. 5Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Early movers in most consumer-facing industries have already
launched a range of commercial apps
1
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
Retail
More than forty retailers have
teamed up with Google for voice-
based shopping
Automotive
Ford, BMW
Consumer durables
GE’s range of smart home products, Garmin’s
dash cam, Sonos’ amplifier
Hospitality
Marriott, Kayak, Northeastern University and
St. Louis University
Banking
Capital One, Bank of America
Travel/Transportation
Uber, Ola
Telecom
Telefonica, Vodafone,
Deutsche Telekom
Restaurants
Starbucks, Domino’s Pizza,
Dunkin Donuts
Industry
adoption

6. 6Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Voice assistants will become a dominant mode of consumer interaction
in three years
Majority of consumers are already using voice assistants and this affinity is set to rise sharply
24%
20%
40%
31%
I will use a voice assistant instead of
a mobile app or a website (Company
websites or apps: Amazon)
I will use a voice assistant instead of
visiting a shop or a bank branch
Today Three years from now
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017, N = 5,041 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.
Voice assistant user base
51%
Users
49%
Non-users
Share of all consumers who would prefer voice
assistants over other channels

7. 7Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
This is a good opportunity to enhance the relationship with the
consumer…
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017, N = 5,041 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.`
One in four consumers is willing to replace his/her customer support/sales interactions with voice assistants
“I have had some really hard time sometimes with
customer support. I think the voice assistants could
take away a lot of stress and headache.”
- US focus group participant
“If I need to locate something in the shop, I would
rather have a voice assistant help me find it than
find a salesperson.”
- UK focus group participant

8. 8Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Spenders
…as well as to engage them for driving new value
Users
Tech-savvy (80%); value data security
over deals and time saving
Two in three have ordered meals/bought
groceries or home products
28% are Gen-Xers (33-45 years) 47% are millennials (22-32 years)
Two in three prefer to use voice
assistants in living room or kitchen
Nine of ten spenders want voice assistants
to understand their diction, and provide fast
and accurate replies

9. 9Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Users of voice assistants have already been adopting them for making
purchases
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017, N = 2,558 users in the US, UK, France and Germany.
Seek information –
news, weather,
recipes
Stream music/videos
Access customer
service
Purchase activities
35%
34%
28%
82%
67%
36%Call a taxi
Buy products
(groceries, home
care)
Order meals
Non-purchase activities

10. 10Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Spending via voice assistants is expected to grow as much as six-fold
in three years for users of voice assistants
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017, N = 5,041 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.
3%
18%
38%
37%
59%
45%
Today Three years from now
Change in spending mix between physical stores,
websites/apps, and voice assistants, today and
three years from now
Voice assistants Websites/apps Physical stores
7%
Share of non-users’
spending via voice
assistants amongst
spending via all channels in
three years from now

11. Why consumers love voice
assistants

12. 12Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Consumers love the
convenience that voice
assistants provide over
other digital means
Convenience (52%)
“There are no restrictions with the time and places for use -
that is the wonderful thing about voice assistants. I regard it
as a very friendly tool”
– UK focus group participant
Multi-tasking (48%)
“The biggest thing for me about voice assistants is to be able
to do what I want to do hands-off, like if I am cooking. In such
situations I don’t want to touch the phone or the tablet”
– US focus group participant
Automation (41%)
“With two kids and a life that's going so fast, I think it would
save a lot of time to automate daily chores. For example,
during driving, checking maps or finding a parking space
would be much more practical.”
– French focus group participant
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017,
N = 5,041 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.
12Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |

13. 13Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
It is faster (49%)
Consumers favor voice assistants for
their speed and convenience over
dealing with human representatives
I would rather interact with the voice assistant, especially while making
purchase orders. It would just make it more accurate, because with
humans, they could write it down wrong or get the quantity incorrect or
other factors.
- US focus group participant
Reasons I prefer voice assistants in shops or
call centers…
“
”
It is more convenient (47%)
I would be happy to use voice assistants for retail because they wouldn’t
try to hard sell (or I hope they wouldn’t).
- UK focus group participant
“
”

14. 14Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Conversational commerce yields concrete benefits for retailers
and brands
Source: Capgemini Research Institute, Conversational Commerce Survey, October–November 2017, N = 5,041 consumers in the US, UK, France and Germany.
+19pp
of average increase in NPS® for
brands that provide a voice
assistant over brands that do not
+16pp
of average increase in NPS® for
brands in the UK
5%
of increase in spending by
consumers who receive a good
voice assistant experience
8%
of increase in spending by users
of voice assistants who receive a
good experience

15. 15Conversational Commerce Research – Key Insights | Capgemini Research Institute © 2018 Capgemini. All rights reserved. |
Design and execute
compelling voice customer
experiences
Apply conversational
intelligence to understand
your target consumers
Devise sound business
operations voice
solutions
Implement technology solutions that seamlessly integrate voice
Prepare the organization for the new voice channel
Start small and have an iterative approach to solve for four key areas of Conversational Commerce
How can organizations devise a sound conversational commerce
strategy?

16. Thank you!

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