Adam Smith believed that the division of labor is the key to growth. According to his theory, greater efficiency may be obtained by breaking down and completing a task using the division of specialized labor, and speech AI offer one way to achieve this division in the modern world.

The most basic and underutilized use of speech AI is present in our everyday activities. Instead of unlocking our iPhones, launching the Phone app, and choosing a person to call, we can just say, “Hey Siri, call … .” Our lives are now simpler, quicker, easier, and more efficient thanks to our very effective use of AI to outsource three tasks.

However, voice AI has many more use cases. In healthcare, for example, voice bots were used to screen patients during Covid-19, as in-person contact needed to be minimized. Voice AI in healthcare can also reduce the burden of tasks on physicians, and companies are betting big on this potential, such as with Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance for $20 billion.

While voice AI might not immediately help physicians and caregivers with diagnosis and treatment, these solutions play a significant role in the delivery of care. Voice assistants, for instance, may remind patients to take their meds. It will also be interesting to see how AI models like ChatGPT combined with voice AI could create new applications.

With these factors in mind, here are some of the key voice AI innovations to track in the coming years.

Smart Speakers

The usage of speech systems has developed in recent years from straightforward voice commands to complex networks of interactions. Amazon Echo, Apple Home Pod, and Google Home have come a long way in not only providing entertainment systems but an alternative user interface to interact with the internet and get things done like refilling prescriptions, fixing appointments, and managing the digital world.

ASR And TTS

Applications around automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) are enabling a vast number of applications right from documentation to voice interfaces to build custom applications. Another piece of technology to watch is natural language understanding (NLU). Documentation in healthcare, legal, and other industries can help mitigate physician burnout, for example, by creating clinical documentation.

The Era Of Voice Chatbots And Advanced Customer Experience

Voice AI chatbots on mobile apps and contact centers can help improve customer engagement. We are on the verge of witnessing a huge jump in innovation in this area with the use of large language models like GPT or BERT. Text-based chatbots have been in use for a long time with ELIZA being developed in 1966. They have come along since then. Voice bots have been slower in innovation due to challenges with the availability of good data sets and variant dialects. Spoken language also has a higher tendency for being more informal than written language.

Voice AI In Healthcare

Virtual assistants and chatbots with AI capabilities were essential in the battle against Covid-19. Apple’s Siri, for example, walked users through the CDC’s Covid-19 evaluation questions. Because of this development, patients are unlikely to resume their pre-pandemic behavior patterns now that they have experienced voice and healthcare in action. Over the upcoming years, anticipate seeing more engagement in voice-tech integration in the healthcare sector.

Patients will likely expect to get prompt answers to queries about their symptoms, drug adverse effects, available therapy, pharmaceutical availability, and therapeutic recommendations with intelligent healthcare voice assistants like Alexa and Google Home. Also, voice assistants have the power to transform healthcare by offering up-to-date data on the condition of our mental health. As a person’s health changes, so do their acoustics. These audio qualities can be used to predict emotional states, emotions, stress, anxiety, sadness, memory, concussions, heart disease, and other ailments.

Conclusion

A voice may be the most natural and fundamental way to effectively communicate. Voice AI will likely play a bigger role in defining how we communicate with businesses and our loved ones more effectively, and it will likely play a much bigger role in healthcare. Those in the technology sector and those in the healthcare sector should continue following these trends and continue to find ways to collaborate in order to understand how to best serve patients.

Source: Forbes