In May 2019, Adobe fielded a 10-min online survey to a representative sample of 1,000 adult voice tech users in the US. The results is released on 22 July 2019, timed with Voice Summit.

Topline Findings

Survey Said: Voice Needs Designers

• 94% of users feel voice technology is easy to use. And their typical activities cover a wide range of tasks including driving directions, phone calls, texts, checking the weather and playing music…

                 …but users say they would not typically use voice technology for more complex tasks like personal banking (61%) or booking travel (52%), highlighting an opportunity for designers to make these experiences more user-friendly and intuitive

• Users are satisfied with voice assistants’ ability to work across devices and accurately provide responses to commands, but less than half of users say they use voice technology daily: demonstrating a clear need for an improved user experience that only designers can bring.

More than half also feel the process of using voice technology is nonintuitive – and 49% agreed that they sometimes don’t know where to begin accomplishing a task using voice tech

71% say that sometimes when they use voice technology, they don’t know what to say next to get the results they need, and wish there were prompts they could use – and 56% feel voice tech presents too many options and needs to be streamlined

Nearly 9 in 10 users agree they would interrupt an incorrect response in order to verbalize a correcting – demonstrating a need for this type of fluid interaction when using voice

81% of users consider privacy concerns and 71% cited user experience challenges as significant issues with voice technology

59% of users believe voice technology will better meet their needs 5S years from now as its design continues to develop

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Survey Said: Should Voice Assistants Be Human?

• The jury is out on this one, with consumers split nearly down the middle on whether voice technology should (51%) or should not (49%) develop more human-like attributes, such as sympathy, humor, etc. as it continues to evolve.

70% of users are satisfied with voice technology’s ability to carry on conversations.

But unlike a fellow human, voice assistants often struggle to understand what’s asked of them:

» 50% of users called out voice recognition as one of the greatest challenges of using voice tech.

» On average, voice technology understands users and is accurate when given a command or asked a question only 69% of the time.

» 77% of users feel frustrated when they have to repeat commands to voice technology.

• Some users may feel uncomfortable using human-like voice technology.

Nearly half of users (47%) said they sometimes feel awkward talking to a machine.

And when asked what capabilities or features would enhance current or future use of voice technology, only 37% cited a more natural, human-like voice.

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Survey Said: The Future is Voice and Screens, Combined

• Users agree that voice technology does more than save time – it improves quality of life.

However, the tasks voice technology is used for are largely transactional – people cited “complexity of tasks” as the number one reason they would not use voice tech for activities like banking/personal finance, booking travel, shopping or ordering food.

But many would like to use voice technology for more complex tasks like booking a medical appointment (37%), requesting hotel amenities (31%) and grocery delivery (30%).

• Most respondents (80%) agreed that visual elements would increase voice technology use.

» 83% of those respondents said a screen reiterating the command given to confirm understanding would increase usage

• Smartphones are the most popular device used for voice technology (85%) – way ahead of smart speakers (39%), indicating that voice-screen combinations may lead to greater adoption of voice.

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