How Can We All Be More Like Voice Assistants?
In a study by Accenture Interactive, 62% “love their voice assistant so much they wish it were a real person.” 
Think about the implications of that fact: AI-based apps are more likable than humans. Yes, it could mean the machines are taking over, but what can we learn about how machines answer our queries? Here’s what machines don’t do with a question:
- Respond with “It depends”
- Don’t overcomplicate answers to sound smart
- Don’t start with “Back in (fill in the year the company was started)…”
- Insist on talking in person
- Make you call them back
- Throw attitude into the answer
Machines also don’t jump around when answering. It’s straightforward information and always consistent.
The research also found we want our smartphones to help us navigate and find products in a store (not help from a clerk) by 52%. And that 73% would use voice assistants all the time if they better understood and spoke back as well as humans.
More than 60% of those surveyed said they were OK if a computer-based application responded to a query instead of a human. With that approval rating we will see more interactions with our machines.
The problem is not the machines, it is the poor customer service people are receiving from humans that is causing the shift. The survey found that people interacting with a computer-based application over humans was best because the applications were more polite, faster to provide service, faster to engage, less biased and available 24-7.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.