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Machine Speech: Digital Assistants and Speech-Enabled Interfaces Coming to the Workplace

By Dick Weisinger

Natural Language Interaction. It’s two-way voice communication between humans and machines. Gartner says that the technology is improving and can be expected to become increasingly used within the workplace, and not just for call center interactions.

Matthew Cain, analyst at Gartner, said that “the effects of speech recognition can be seen on a daily basis. Consumers and workers increasingly interact with applications without touching a keyboard. Speech-to-text applications have proliferated due to the adoption of chatbots and virtual personal assistants (VPAs) by businesses, and consumer adoption of devices with speech interactions including smartphones, gaming consoles and specifically, VPA speakers.”

Van Baker, research vice-president at Gartner, said that “app development leaders need to anticipate that their proliferation as more and more people and businesses move to conversational user interfaces.”

In the workplace, voice interfaces are expected to work particularly well in partitioned offices and conference rooms, away from open workplace layouts where many different voices can be heard in the background.  Voice-based virtual assistants will provide reports based on summary information from enterprise systems, like CRM and ERP, and orally present information about opportunities, projects, cases, and sales invoices.

 

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