Pandemic Speeding Up Smart Speaker Acceptance

The COVID-19 crisis is speeding up the adoption of various technologies as people work remotely and spend more time at home. Voice tech is certainly among that group, according to a top executive on Amazon’s Alexa team.

GeekWire spoke with Tom Taylor, senior vice president of the Amazon Alexa unit, to learn more about recent Alexa-related trends amid the pandemic and what it means for the future of voice technology development.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in the use of voice in the home,” Taylor said.

Tom Taylor

For example, customers asked Alexa more cooking-related questions during a week in April than during Thanksgiving week last year. Music listening through Alexa devices is up compared to last year. Skills usage is up 65% worldwide over the past two months, and Alexa voice search with Amazon’s Fire TV platform is also increasing.

Alexa is fielding plenty of coronavirus-related queries as well. Amazon quickly worked to fill the Alexa database with information from sources such as the CDC.

Other app developers have also built their own related services. Last month the Mayo Clinic rolled out a skill that provides information about COVID-19 and takes users through a set of yes-or-no questions to determine whether they need a coronavirus test.

In many ways, Alexa acts as a search engine but without the need for an extra device. There’s also a more personal element to the voice interactions, Taylor said.

“People do build relationships with Alexa,” he said. “We have something like one million marriage proposals and compliments of love to Alexa. I don’t think anybody has ever done that to a keyboard.”

The rise in voice tech usage means more opportunities for voice app developers.

Amazon is battling Google and others in the voice services industry. According to Voicebot Research, Amazon’s share of the smart-speaker market has declined from 61% in 2019 to 53% as of this January, with Google’s second-place share rising to 30.9%. Facebook’s Portal device, which comes with Alexa built-in, has also seen growing usage.