Voice and speech recognition predicted to reach $6.9B by 2025 as Alexa-powered banking trials launch

The global market for voice and speech recognition technology is expected to vault from $1.1 billion in 2017 to $6.9 billion by 2025, and market intelligence firm Tractica characterizes it as the tip of the technology spear for sophisticated voice services. The new market prediction comes as digital banking services provider Central 1 has announced the launch of pilots by two credit unions of authenticated voice banking services using Amazon Alexa.

Pilots by Innovation Credit Union and Conexus Credit Union are the first of their kind in Canada, according to the announcement, and use Central 1’s conversational user interface with continual accuracy improvement driven by machine learning and artificial intelligence. The skill was developed in collaboration with design agency Point One Digital to follow best practices in design, customer experience, and “Lean” principles. The conversational aspect also includes “Easter Eggs” to improve customer engagement and provide financial tips.

The service is protected by built-in authentication and security measures, including OAuth and Amazon voice biometrics.

Assuming the pilots are successful, the technology will be rolled out to all customers in the fall.

Leading use cases for the technology will include clinical documentation for healthcare, automotive virtual digital assistants, and voice commerce and customer service applications, according to Tractica’s “Voice and Speech Recognition” report. The company also expects voice technology will also be used in applications such as smart home controls, security and authentication, and voice search.

“Speech recognition technology has been around for quite a while, but it was the emergence of smartphones and cloud computing that was the real game-changer for this market,” says principal analyst Mark Beccue. “Artificial intelligence algorithms have improved voice and speech recognition accuracy rates significantly in the span of a few short years, and these new capabilities are enabling a wider range of applications for spoken interfaces across multiple industry sectors.”

Learn more about how the integration of AI VPAs into self-servicing is a ripe opportunity for banks to differentiate from competitors.

Article Topics

Amazon  |  banking  |  biometrics  |  speech recognition  |  Tractica  |  voice authentication