Study: We Still Don’t Like Digital Assistants That Much

Digital or voice assistants have immensely improved in the last half decade or so, but for the average mobile user, it may still feel weird interacting with them, let alone rely on one. The results of a new study recently conducted by Adobe certainly indicates that voice assistants do not get that much love yet from consumers. 

In Adobe’s study, it was found that 37 percent of those polled characterized their sessions with voice assistants as either not good or terrible. Also, 37 percent of those who participated in the survey claimed that they find their interactions with voice assistants as a positive experience, while the rest described their interactions as merely okay. 

It turns out that some of the voice assistant frustrations have something to do with Apple’s familiar voice assistant service, Siri. As explained by Tamara Gaffney, an analyst from Adobe Digital Insights, Siri appears to be having a somewhat negative impact on consumers, particularly with their expectations for voice assistant features. 

The study does offer some numbers to back up this up. After poring through billions of posts on social media platforms that mention Siri, Adobe found that Siri has the least number of positive remarks, as compared to all other voice assistant services. Ouch. Then some may remember that back in April of this year, results of a similar study conducted by Stone Temple were also published, and like Adobe’s survey, the earlier study showed unimpressive results for Siri.

Could the less than stellar public reception of its Siri voice assistant hurt Apple’s chances, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence? It would be difficult to tell for sure, but it would be wise for the iPhone maker to heed the signs. The company happens to be planning to launch its new HomePod smart speaker during the holiday season later this year for a price of $349, and Siri is expected to have a big role in how the device is to be operated by users. Now if Siri does not impress, people may have found another reason not to purchase the smart speaker. 

Much more worrying is the idea that if Siri can not do it, then all voice assistants in general may not be that useful at all. This would undoubtedly be a shame -- voice assistants may not be that much liked yet, but their popularity has grown significantly in the last few years, with the market offering Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana. Adobe’s study also shows that 22 percent of those surveyed are claiming that they use a voice assistant every day instead of a keyboard. Nonetheless, 49 percent of those polled still state they have never tried using a voice assistant.