PwC Global AI Device Ownership – FI

10% of Global Consumers Own AI Devices Such as Automated Personal Assistants, Smart Speakers – PwC

PwC’s annual Global Consumer Insights Survey 2018 reports that 10% of consumers around the world own an “AI device.” The question that was posed to 22,480 consumers in “27 territories across the globe” was: Do you currently own any artificial intelligence (AI) devices (robots, automated ‘personal assistants’) such as Amazon Echo or Google Home? Comments from the report said:

“Our survey found that, even though it’s still early days for the technology, the outlook for AI devices is promising. While just 10% of respondents globally said they currently own AI devices, such as robots and automated personal assistants like Amazon Echo or Google Home, nearly one in three (32%) said they plan to buy an AI device.”

Impact of AI on Voice Commerce

The PwC report has a focus on how AI adoption will impact CPG manufacturers and retailers. Voice commerce is expected to be an important use case of voice AI users. We are already seeing voice shopping on smart speakers and that is expected to extend to voice interaction through smartphones and appliances.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving very rapidly into the consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail sectors. Already, more and more shoppers are using so-called ‘voice commerce’ on home-based devices to replenish household supplies and groceries…In the next two to three years, the industry’s first movers will capture major advantages over the laggards.”

The specific findings from the report do show that early voice AI adopters have expectations around same-day delivery, are more likely to shop on mobile and use mobile payments. These data points suggest voice commerce could get an initial boost from AI early adopters. A report by OC&C Strategy estimated voice shopping in the U.S. and U.K. reached $2 billion in 2017 and will grow to $45 billion by 2022.

A 10% global adoption rate for AI-enabled smart speakers, robots and appliances is a stunning finding. Voicebot found that nearly 20% of U.S. consumers have already adopted smart speakers, but the U.S. has had access to these and other devices for a longer time period than other geographies. For the rest of the globe to be catching up so quickly is more evidence that consumers believe voice offers a great deal of utility when interacting with computing resources. The fact that another one-third of consumers plan to purchase a voice-first device portends even more growth ahead.

