Voice assistant devices in use to double by 2024, overtake world population: Study

Consumers will interact with voice assistants on over 8.4 billion devices by 2024; overtaking the world’s population and growing 113% compared to the 4.2 billion devices expected to be in use by year end 2020, according to a Juniper Research study. Despite this, monetisation of the voice assistants themselves remains a challenge.

Need for Behaviour Changes Restricts the Space

The new research, Voice Assistant Market: Player Strategies, Monetisation & Market Size 2020-2024, finds that automotive voice assistants and those connected to TVs will have the highest rate of growth, largely thanks to the ability to use voice assistants through peripherals, rather than new hardware. However, this depends on changing consumer behaviour; less than half of TVs capable of voice assistant functions will actually use the function, even in years’ time.

“Ingrained habits of how devices are used will restrict opportunities for voice assistants and voice commerce,” remarked research co-author James Moar. “Vendors should focus on driving usage almost as much as promoting device sales.”

Multiple Devices, with Limited Reach for Most

Despite a proliferation of different voice assistant devices, Juniper Research expects that smartphones will continue their dominance of the space. Other devices will be comparatively underused in many markets. Despite having more than double the population of North America, the number of voice assistant devices in Europe will only exceed North America by 2022, and then only marginally, thanks to fewer devices being launched into those markets.

The research notes that while several voice assistant vendors are pivoting towards productivity and office usage, this will be a relatively small market. Less than 354 million PCs will have active voice assistants, particularly following Microsoft shifting Cortana away from being a full voice assistant. Juniper Research recommends that voice assistant companies targeting the PC market emphasise voice as part of wider ecosystem of device and data management, with more automation than consumer voice assistants.