Far from being a simple technological advancement, the evolution of vocal artificial intelligence is an essential step in how humans interact with machines. From humble beginnings in the middle of the 20th century to a noticeable presence today, vocal AI has made its mark on technology, particularly communication.
It's worth noting the rapid growth of vocal AI in recent years. According to Statista, over 4 billion voice assistants were used in 2020, projected to double to 8.4 billion by 2025. This surge in usage is mirrored in the market, with a study by Grand View Research estimating the global vocal AI market at $136.6 billion in 2022. It is expected to reach a staggering $1,811.8 billion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 38.1%.
The transformative potential of vocal AI extends far beyond a simple commodity. This technology is revolutionizing interactions in numerous sectors, including healthcare, education, transport, and marketing. Its impact is not just significant, but also promising for the future of these industries.
However, while you can easily integrate the tech into call centers, websites, and mobile apps, how exactly does it work? In which cases can it be used? What about in the future?
What is vocal artificial intelligence?
Vocal AI is an advanced technology that allows an app or device to understand, interpret, and generate spoken human responses naturally and fluently.
It uses sophisticated algorithms, machine learning models, voice recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and neural networks to analyze spoken language and produce relevant responses.
Vocal AI bridges the gap between humans and machines, not merely imitating voices but creating natural and intuitive intelligent interactions. Its user-centric design ensures that the technology is tailored to meet the needs and expectations of its users, making them feel valued and considered.
How does vocal artificial intelligence work?
Vocal AI works by understanding and interpreting human language. There are six main steps:
1. Converting speech to text
Here, the vocal AI uses speech recognition to interpret the user's speech by analyzing the sound waves. These waves are broken down and converted into data the system can easily understand.
2. Ambient noise filtering
This step eliminates all unwanted noise that could hinder voice recognition. The AI relies on a neural network to separate speech from environmental noise to do this.
3. Neural processing transfer
Once the message has been recognized, the AI uses data encryption protocols to send the information to a server. This uses advanced artificial intelligence models to treat and associate the text with the best possible results.
4. Syntactical and semantical analysis
The system analyzes the meaning of the text using deep learning and linguistic analysis techniques to understand the request and its context.
5. Evaluating results
At this stage, the AI thoroughly reexamines the user request to validate the quality and relevance of its response. It then analyzes the responses, filtering the best solution corresponding to the query.
6. Vocally communicating with the user
The last step is to generate a vocal response to the user's query. The vocal AI uses sound generation techniques and voice modeling to produce an audio signal imitating a human voice.
The effect of vocal AI across different sectors
Vocal artificial intelligence can naturally interact with humans, impacting almost every sector. From transport to finance via e-commerce, education, and healthcare, it can optimize processes, improve decision-making, and revitalize customer service.
Here are a few areas that vocal AI has transformed:
Integrating vocal AI into sales can improve customer experience, conversion rates, and sales. Using a voice search, customers can quickly and effortlessly search for products, add them to their basket, and even checkout.
Healthcare
Through voice recognition technology, patients can make appointments with their doctor, get diagnoses remotely, and even get personalized healthcare recommendations.
Voice recognition technology can also make healthcare more accessible and improve healthcare service quality.
It can also specifically offer transcription services to doctors, allowing them to record consultations in real time and see patient profiles and past prescriptions.
Education
Whether modernizing classic learning approaches or improving academic results, vocal AI can help the education sector.
For example, with vocal tutoring, students can enjoy personalized learning experiences with programs adapted to their needs. Furthermore, interactive vocal platforms can help immerse students in learning languages.
What about the other sectors?
There are more applications than just education, healthcare, and e-commerce that can benefit from vocal artificial intelligence. This technology has also revolutionized:
- Finance: Banking apps with voice commands allow customers to check their balances, complete transactions, manage their finances, and more.
- Customer service: Whether with chatbots or a voicebot using vocal AI, customers can enjoy fast, efficient, and personalized customer service.
- Transport and logistics: Integrating vocal systems can help plan deliveries, manage stock, and track shipments in real time.
The main vocal artificial intelligence tools
Since they can provide vocal assistance on many platforms, plenty of vocal AI tools are on the market. However, some stand out because of how innovative and popular they are, including:
- Google Assistant: This helps users search, listen to music, make calls, control connected devices, and more.
- Amazon Alexa: This app lets users listen to podcasts, buy things online, book trips, and play games.
- Apple's Siri: Siri provides personalized assistance, including route planning, translating languages, sending messages, and other tasks.
Beyond these applications, new voicebot solutions are shaping the future of vocal artificial intelligence. Brands like Samsung with Bixby and Microsoft with Cortana offer innovative solutions adapted to specific use cases.
Synthesia, HeyGen, or even Eleven Labs allow users to create vocal clones based on their voice and convert text to speech in real-time. Natural Reader can synthesize spoken language from different file types, such as images and PDFs.
The future of vocal AI
As natural language processing algorithms and machine learning continue to evolve, the future for vocal AI looks very promising. The possibilities are endless, going from predictive fraud prevention to integration with other apps to other automatic translations.
According to Beyond Touch: Voice Commerce 2030 by Deloitte, 30% of e-commerce sales will be made vocally. This shows that this technology will likely also affect factories, building sites, offices, etc., regardless of the sector: realty, insurance, retail, tourism, therapy, etc.
However, this promising future comes with responsibilities. The ethical considerations can't be ignored. In other words, rolling out AI-powered solutions needs to be done with security, confidentiality, and user protections in mind without bias or discrimination.
Integrate vocal AI into your business with YeldaAI
YeldaAI is a tool for creating callbots and voicebots powered by artificial intelligence. You can create your own vocal AI and integrate it into your systems in just a few clicks. Want to know more? Ask for a demo here.