We asked 1000 people; What do you ask your Voice Assistant?

It's no surprise or incredible insight that there's been a massive rise in the ownership and use of Voice Activated Virtual Assistants in the UK.  

Especially since Christmas 2017, when almost 50% of the smart speakers in our homes today were under the tree. (Possibly due to aggressive Black Friday price reductions in November's run-up to the big day.)

Now, it's estimated that 1 in 10 of us have a Voice Assistant sat on the kitchen worktop or bedside table; and we've happily and quickly got used to the idea of them helping us control our lighting, heating and security.  

So far, so good. But what else do we use our smart speakers for? And are we making the smartest use of them? How often do we ask them to do something? Where and when are they helping out? And what do we think of the service we are receiving from them?  

We commissioned OnePoll to survey a nationally-representative group of 1,000 British adults and start getting answers to all these questions‚ and more. Here's what they told us‚  

A final word on Voice Assistants

Taking a look at the findings and giving us his own take on things, Code Computerlove MD, Louis Georgiou said:  

"A lot of people are banking on home speakers being the future of home automation‚ and they are certainly making progress in helping homeowners link all their smart technology together. So voice activated devices are definitely here to stay.  

"But I think this survey reinforces that we're probably not using the technology to its full capabilities. We're still quite conservative and limited in the tasks we're asking our devices to perform.

'My prediction is that we'll see a move towards more valuable and worthwhile interactions‚ instead of just asking Alexa for a weather forecast when we can look out of the window ourselves." 

If you'd like a complete copy of all the data our research survey uncovered, or just want to chat (to a human) about the findings, please tweet us @Computerlovers