Walter Hodge
After going over the videos and readings for Disruptive Innovation, I really wanted to blog about block chain as I feel it’s a growing technology that some large incumbents’ resists. However, it was the topic of my last post in relation to Systems, so I decided to blog today on another disruptive technology “Voice Based Personal Assistants.” As we know Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant technology adoptions has grown over the last few years and as of this article from March 2018, 51% of consumers throughout US, France, UK & Germany already use voice assistants. This number will surely increase and with more companies implementing voice command features into their products, such as refrigerators and automobiles, this pattern of disruption for a sustainable competitive advantage is apparent. Incremental improvements on everyday products grow these conglomerates ecosystems, allowing new business models to be strategized. The consultant firm Capegmini predicts that in 2 years 40% of all consumer purchases will be through voice assistants rather than brick and motor or web stores. Although it seems to provide simplicity to our everyday lives which allow us to be more efficient, there are many challenges and concerns for this technology. Certainly, data analytics for advertising companies is a concern when it comes to consumer privacy, but there’s also the challenge of integration so that multiple products enabled with voice command are not clashing. Furthermore, how will authentication be performed, can voice enable purchases be easily misinterpreted by unauthorized users, say a child or visiting neighbor? How do you feel about certain products being equipped with voice command, should anything be off limits? e.g. “flush my toilet” sure at home it sounds ridiculous but in a public lavatory, maybe not, but is it needed, sensors already work fine.
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