My Very Own Personal Assistant

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Challenge: Voice-activated assistants (VAAs) are an emerging technology with promising potential for VAA brands and advertisers. To explore this potential, we must know more about the user experience and uncover new behaviors and desires. This group project was facilitated through a Qualitative Research course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The client was Publicis Media.

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Research & Insight: Through the analysis of 16 in-depth interviews and academic and trade sources, we discovered the following: an understanding of how consumers use, and engage with, their devices, measurement of attitudes and synthesizing of the personality consumers attribute to the device, an identification of the relationship between human and system, an assessment of attitudes toward advertising penetration, and insights concerning the benefits, limitations, and expectations for the future. 

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Primary uses included: listening to music, checking the weather and controlling lights at home. Participants consider VAAs to be their personal butler and view them as an enhancement to their daily routines. For them, the devices are a convenient tool. Though its voice capability functions are in need of improvement, consumers are willing participants in the journey, and they have great expectations for what it can do in the future. Lack of personality and inability to be conversational inhibits the human-device relationship. Also, though some privacy concerns exist, the risks don't outweigh the benefits associated with use in this privacy paradox. Lastly, attitudes towards advertising vary with most agreeing that it should not interrupt the experience.