Have we fallen out of love with voice assistants?

[mongers]

I gave Siri on my iphone a female voice with an English accent.
So the only time I really use it is on those cold, lonely, Friday nights.
Otherwise none at all.

[Barrister]

Me and the kids will use Alexa to play music sometimes.  "Hey Alexa, play [whatever song]".

The algorithm/speech recognition can be frustrating.  It'll immediately default to the most obvious, popular song or artist, despite you clearly asking for something else.  I can remember trying multiple times to get it to play british post-punk group The Fall, only to get Fallout Boy - I eventually did get The Fall so the songs are in its system.

Not sure how Amazon can monetize us asking for random songs in the living room though.

Siri can be useful when driving and asking to call or text someone.  But really - both are kind of niche uses.

[Jacob]

Not sure how Amazon can monetize us asking for random songs in the living room though.

It contributes to the highly defined marketing profiles that Amazon uses to generate ~$30 billion in advertising revenue.

EDIT: ... and which can also be used to position products and services to maximize their revenue.

Of course there's also the classic Sillicon Valley "we give it to you for free until you are used to it, and then we make you pay one or more subscription fees."

[Sheilbh]

It contributes to the highly defined marketing profiles that Amazon uses to generate ~$30 billion in advertising revenue.

EDIT: ... and which can also be used to position products and services to maximize their revenue.

Of course there's also the classic Sillicon Valley "we give it to you for free until you are used to it, and then we make you pay one or more subscription fees."

Yeah. Although Amazon are a late entrant into the online advertising comparatively and compared to Meta or Google very small. Also interesting/causing a lot of excitement for publishers is Microsoft starting to get heavily involved in that sector.

But I'm not sure how much that's the motivation. My guess is that Amazon haven't got there yet on the strategy but are aiming to have something like a slightly cheaper Apple range of physical products.

I think the tech sector cutbacks are striking here - Apple haven't had big layoffs and Amazon have a relatively small layoffs compared to, say, Meta and Google. I think part of that is because in both cases they have core parts of their business are a bit more real. For Apple it's consumer goods, for Amazon it's AWS - both of which can cross-subsidise the other bits of the business. While Google and Meta are ultimately just selling ad inventory (I think it's 80%+ of Google's revenue and something mad like 99% of Meta's).

I think Alexa etc help Amazon with building their own ad company - but may also be a hedge of trying to set up a tangible consumer goods product line (or, may be, Apple with their walled garden plus Microsoft and Amazon with their broader revenue lines positioning to try and takeover Google and Meta's bit of the market? ). Amazon seem to be going more for the connected house uses - with Alexa as hub - like Ring which works with Alexa.

[Barrister]

Not sure how Amazon can monetize us asking for random songs in the living room though.

It contributes to the highly defined marketing profiles that Amazon uses to generate ~$30 billion in advertising revenue.

EDIT: ... and which can also be used to position products and services to maximize their revenue.

Of course there's also the classic Sillicon Valley "we give it to you for free until you are used to it, and then we make you pay one or more subscription fees."

But Alexa itself doesn't offer up any ads.

If I go to amazon itself sure it gives ads - but just ads for products you can buy on Amazon.  Which are probably some of the more useful ads out there, since if you're going to Amazon you are looking to buy something in the first place.

[viper37]

My smart remote is broken so I can't reprogram it for my new tv.

So I used the integrated Alexa voice command to turn it on and off, and for some of the features.  I have to call it's name 2 or 3 times before it answers.  It's more stubborn than a teenager.

[Jacob]

But Alexa itself doesn't offer up any ads.

No, but it collects data on you and and connects it to your profile. It can also be used to identify broader patterns, which is valuable when serving ads to you in any other context where you can be identified.

If I go to amazon itself sure it gives ads - but just ads for products you can buy on Amazon.  Which are probably some of the more useful ads out there, since if you're going to Amazon you are looking to buy something in the first place.

So they can sell high value ads (because you're likely there to buy) and increase the value of those ad-sells because they can connect them to very specific audiences - "you think your product should be advertised to urban male Albertans 38-58 who listen to post-punk? Yeah, we can sell you that, but that's obviously going to cost more per impression than broadly spammed ads."

On top of that, of course, Alexa listening to you all the time can be used to map out your behaviour very well - when are you home / not home, how many people in your household, when do you watch TV, how often do your argue, what sports teams are mentioned frequently, when do you sleep, when do you relax and when are you active etc - is valuable in all kinds of contexts including product design. Of course Alexa may not be able to do all of those things, but it can connect to various other tools collecting data about your profile to map it out in great detail.

That can be monetized in a number of ways.

The point is, data collection and accurate profile development is a large and valuable ecosystem. However much or little Alexa does specifically, it nonetheless contributes - and that is valuable.

[Caliga]

My Apple Watch's Siri annoys the shit out of me... on the rare occasions that I ask it questions, it either doesn't answer at all or doesn't understand.  But then it'll randomly and loudly ask me questions during meetings and embarrass me.  Also, it has an Australian accent for some reason.

[Valmy]

My Apple Watch's Siri annoys the shit out of me... on the rare occasions that I ask it questions, it either doesn't answer at all or doesn't understand.  But then it'll randomly and loudly ask me questions during meetings and embarrass me.  Also, it has an Australian accent for some reason.

Oh shit that reminds me. The voice assistant on my last phone was annoying as fuck. Even with me actively trying to turn it off and shut it down it still kept going off randomly. Fortunately my new phone doesn't appear to have a voice assistant.