Research revealed in March that although Covid-19 is believed to mostly spread from person-to-person through the likes of coughing and sneezing, the virus can live on surfaces outside of the body for up to 72 hours.
Due to this, there has been a certain uptake in the use of ‘touch-free’ tech such as voice assistants or Bluetooth devices.
A Smart Audio Report published by NPR and Edison Research revealed that at the beginning of lockdown, more than half of smart device owners in the US were using voice commands at least once a day.
This is compared with the beginning of the year, which saw people using their Amazon Alexa or Google Home around once a week.
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The survey was carried out on 1,660 adults in the States.
The reason for an increased usage in smart devices is thought to be because more people were staying at home due to lockdown, and therefore being around their smart devices more often.
However, there is an argument that individuals preferred getting their AI helpers to turn on their lights or TVs for them, instead of having to physically touch various surfaces.
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The ways people are using their AI assistants are changing too. Smart speaker owners request an average of 10.8 different tasks from their voice assistant a week in 2020, compared to 9.4 different tasks last year, according to the same Smart Audio report.
The UK’s stats are fairly similar, as British marketing firm IAB UK produced data showing that people here are producing more audio entertainment and news via their voice helpers than before.
This may be due to more people wanting to keep updated about the pandemic via media bulletins.
More research by global product and service design company, Foolproof, identified that most UK consumers seem to be veering towards touch-free tech when it comes to the retail industry.
Almost 50% of participants surveyed said that they will use contactless payment where the limit allows, a quarter of respondents added they will use cash machines less (and only when absolutely necessary) and one in five stated they would do more grocery shopping online.
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Peter Ballard, co-founder of Foolproof commented: “Currently the onus is on the customer to make adaptations when interacting with these technologies, not the business who rely on this engagement to sell, gather data and so on. For brands offering public facing technologies in the future, the exploration of other ways to reduce touch through design should be a consideration. In the immediate term, this creates unique design challenges that require unpicking.
“We suggest leading on intermediary changes which reduce touches to purchase such as, styluses, improved mobile payments and QR codes as a way to pay, whilst having a longer-term strategy for the trajectory towards being completely touchless. Further off we could see a boom in touchless interactions rooted in haptics, voice and gesture or see mobile devices facilitating a broader set of interactions beyond payments – this will foster all new touchless experiences.”
Smart tech in keyless entry doors also became a quick fad, with British security authority Brisant Secure becoming one the first lock specialists in the UK to develop a smart door lock that could be opened via geo-unlocking, using voice controls with Siri, or option or Bluetooth entry via the Danalock app.
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Sources: Voicebot AI, Retail Times
