PURCHASE, N.Y.—A recent survey of 3,000 Americans conducted by Mastercard and Mercator reveals that the new wave of virtual assistants has already started changing how people engage and interact in their lives.
Two-thirds of respondents are already using voice assistants or messenger/text-based chatbots, and one in five are using them for commerce purposes, the study shows.
As CUToday.info has reported, a number of credit unions have already announced solutions compatible with virtual assistants.
Voice-based and text-based agents are commonly used for basic informational tasks ranging from performing an Internet search, to finding the nearest restaurant and giving simple commands such as making a phone call. But a growing number of people are using this interface for more complex tasks, with 21% of respondents using this technology to shop, pay bills, bank online or send money.
“The ubiquity of smartphones that have integrated voice-based agents has resulted in over half
of the people surveyed indicating they use voice NLP (natural language processing) on smartphones, one-third of them doing so daily or more,” Mastercard said.
The survey respondents commonly use voice controls on a variety of other voice-enabled
electronics as well. Those who own dedicated devices like smart speakers show the highest frequency of use: 50% engage with the voice agent daily. Handsfree convenience also seems to play a role in the vehicle with four in 10 connected car users employing this voice feature daily or more frequently.
Text agents are most commonly used via smartphone: 34% use a smartphone to engage a text-based chatbot, 13% do so daily or more frequently.
“Usage of text chatbots via computer is nearly as high. This demonstrates that consumers are willing to engage in the text-based interface through a variety of digital channels,” Mastercard said.