Find Your Voice: Sounding out the future of voice technology for brands

Voice technology has captivated our imagination and it seems universally accepted that it will play a significant part in all our lives. As a result, brands will need to develop strategies for how they engage with consumers in this new context.
 
For ‘Find Your Voice’, IAB UK and Ipsos MORI have worked together to map out what the future of technology will look like in order to provide guidance for brands entering this space, through interviews with professionals from a wide array of fields (e.g. Neuroscience, AI & Robotics), talking to early adopters and conducting a workshop with industry experts. 

The result of this consultative approach is a report that touches on a wide range of issues, from both a consumer and industry perspective. In doing so, it seeks to challenge brands to consider why they wish to develop a voice strategy and, if there is a good brand fit, how they can synthesise existing audience insight and understanding through a voice lens.
 

See our video summarising the research:

The report covers a lot of ground and is one of the most comprehensive studies of this rapidly emerging and exciting technology. There are perhaps three key insights that reveal themselves through the course of the report. These are:

• Experts see AI as fundamental to the further development of voice technology with great potential for people and brands.

• Human communication is extremely complicated and it’s more than a voice alone – we use subtle facial movements, gestures, and variations in pitch, tone and range to communicate and brands and technology companies will need to consider how these ideas can be incorporated into their strategies.

• Ethical and privacy concerns are critical – we are inviting this technology into our homes, to be always listening to our most personal moments and to hold a lot of data on us. It is imperative brands don’t abuse this trust.