The Internet of Voice 5

By: Dan Granger

Make Way for The Internet of Voice

Part 1, Duck Pizza! An Idea Before Its Time

Part 2, Smart Speakers; The Trojan Horse of Audio

Part 3, Smart Speakers In Your Delorean & What Happens Next

For the past half-decade, few industries have received such adulation or self-congratulation as Podcast. Oxford Road has shared this enthusiasm throughout the ascent. Yet amidst the deafening fanfare, there is a much larger movement afoot, which stands to upend the audio landscape for marketers and transform the way consumers, corporations, and governments deal with voice. Relatively speaking, Podcast is only a precursor to the forthcoming revolution. What follows is the first installment in a four-part series written by Oxford Road Founder and CEO Dan Granger as he guides you through the past, present and future of a voice-connected internet, and all that it portends. This series of editorials is a must-read for both brands and media organizations if they are to seize the opportunity it represents, before it falls into the hands of faster-moving competitors. For 1:1 consulting to ensure your brand is prepared for Internet of Voice, please contact voice@oxfordroad.com. 

Last week, we looked at the backstory behind The Internet of Voice. In this second installment of our 4-part series, Oxford Road Founder and CEO Dan Granger breaks down how smart speakers are setting the stage for a full-on revolution in audio. If you thought the meteoric rise of Podcast was exciting, get ready for what smart speakers are about to do. 

If you missed part one of this article, click HERE. 

For 1:1 consulting to ensure your brand is prepared for the Internet of Voice, please contact voice@oxfordroad.com. 

Fire up the Flux Capacitor! This week we travel to a world reimagined through the future convergence of Voice, 5G and the Internet of Things. In the third installment of our 4-part series, Oxford Road Founder and CEO Dan Granger shares a glimpse of what’s possible as smart speakers transform the world as we know it. Next week we’ll return to Hill Valley to take a look at practical applications for marketers. For now, buckle up as we accelerate to 88MPH. 

If you missed the two previous parts of this article, click HERE for part 1 and HERE for part 2.

For 1:1 consulting to ensure your brand is prepared for the Internet of Voice, please contact voice@oxfordroad.com. 

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The call came out of the blue. Fate had brought us together and we must meet at once. He had initiated the second coming of Google and had not a moment to spare. His name was Robert Blaisch. Fifty-seven years old, weathered, but bursting with vision and a deep understanding of the inner workings of emerging technology. A former hippy restauranteur with a Berkeley Degree, Bob was the father of “The Voice Internet.” This overwhelmingly ambitious tech company had spent ten years in stealth mode before claiming to be a tech company or “in stealth” became commonplace. Since 1997, he doggedly pursued his vision of an interconnected world where voice would give us instant access to anything imaginable, or at least commensurate with what you could get on the internet. He had purchased the vanity phone number 1-800-555-5555 to serve as the single point of entry and operating system for a new worldwide web of audio. His laboratory was buried below the Louise Green Millinery Co. along the 405 Freeway in West Los Angeles. I was in my late twenties and reaching for minor innovations in the radio industry. Immediately, I fell head over heels for his mad scientist routine and would be Marty McFly to his Doc. I set up pitches and leveraged my radio experience to give him contact with the industry he sought to re-engineer. 

“Duck Pizza!” This he would shout into his cell phone as a demonstration of the platform’s capabilities to fulfill even the most obscure of fantasies for transacting commerce via voice command. He would trot out surrogate father and Academy Award Winning Actor Martin Landau to bring some old Hollywood charm and credibility to his offering. On paper, his strategy was flawless. Problematically, every demo seemed to fail mid-pitch as his speech recognition software could not keep pace with his vision. Any enthusiasm from corporate executives waned with every botched demo. We cobbled together a few small deals to test its usefulness to advertisers, but the technology could not support a sustainable business. Soon I moved on and redirected my energy to make way for the coming of the Great Podcast Revolution. Bob fought valiantly for another decade, ultimately scrapping The Voice Internet for parts and selling the world’s best vanity phone number to a law firm. Two years ago, all out of money and a Rolodex long worn thin, Bob awoke from his impossible dream. The Voice Internet was disconnected. 

In a tragic coincidence, The Voice Internet’s demise occurred at the precise moment in history that a voice connected internet was reborn in the form of Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the Apple HomePod. All along, Robert Blaisch had been right in his vision, but wrong in his timing. And, perhaps, his execution. 

In technology, timing is everything. But like gazing at the stars with the naked eye, what appears to be the present is only an approximation of the way things used to be. To predict where things are going, we must triangulate—from the known past as well as our imagination.

For those of us who are not Technological Futurists by trade, how are we to live and adapt to the changing of an era? We have now witnessed The Information Age and watched it dismantle and reorganize our reality as we understand it. Today, we feel the tremors of a new wave in technology. We know that the ground on which we stand is about to shift again, exponentially evolving from what we’ve already seen. For the first time, we are legitimately unsure of our future value or ability to compete with the forthcoming capabilities of machines. 

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If there were a prom for the telecommunications industry in 2019, Podcast would be the belle of the ball. Podcast has become the most adored, talked about, and self-congratulated medium in the last 50 years. As a commercial industry, however, it still hasn’t cleared the $500 Million mark. Podcast is not even 4% of the terrestrial radio business, or 10% of the Satellite radio business, or one-third of Pandora. This isn’t even Roku money—though rampant enthusiasts are quick to point out that meaningful capital is beginning to flood the space. The prestige has undoubtedly risen with the entrance of Blue Chip Advertisers, seven-figure-per-season production budgets, and nine-figure publisher valuations and purchase prices. One-third of Americans allegedly listen monthly, although a cohesive measurement approach remains a leading challenge. Indeed, we are a few short years from being considered a Billion Dollar Industry, which means it will finally get close to the value of the free advertising received from fawning trade publications which talk of little else. But then what? It will still be less than 1% of digital revenue. 

Deservedly, Podcast has been a rising star for the past five years, much-pronounced since the launch of the pervasively popular Serial. So much so, that your dedicated author was able to build a leading advertising agency for direct to consumer brands with podcast placement at the center. But what has podcast achieved technologically? It’s offered portability and has made a treasure trove of pirate radio stars—over 700,000 of them—more accessible. But ultimately, it’s just a better version of the walkman. Because of the depth of access to content that was easy to create, Podcast scratched an itch that mainstream media could not and has afforded us a renaissance in programming quality not seen since the advent of radio itself. Podcast is not going anywhere soon, but it is better thought of as an on-demand version of radio, or “streaming audio” if you prefer. In light of the changes occurring beneath the crust of the telecommunications industry, Podcast is more like a Red Dwarf. A tour de force, definitely, but a first act to the oncoming fundamental disestablishment of everything we’ve understood about the transmission of audio and how it impacts our lives. Make no mistake, it is the coming capabilities exploding from our smart speakers that best deserve our focus.

Do you hear what I hear? In less than five years, Amazon, Google, and Apple (Market Cap north of $2.5 Trillion at time of writing) have put smart speakers into the hands and homes of more than 50 million Americans—with half of those owning two or more. The smart speaker, virtual assistant, or home automation device (as it is sometimes called) is “an Internet-enabled speaker that is controlled by spoken commands and capable of streaming audio content, relaying information, and communicating with other devices.” 

Though championed by titans and heading toward inevitable ubiquity, the current capabilities of the smart speaker are almost laughable. Modern usage is not much further advanced or reliable than a clock radio with a thermometer, mixed with audio’s version of AskJeeves. In theory, it is a personal shopper if you’ve ordered the product before or Amazon wants you to buy it. It’s a whole-house remote control for your mouth if all your smart devices have developed seamless integration. An audiobook library as well as a researcher. It’s your secretary. It’s a food delivery service. It’s a game. It’s someone to keep you company. Many worry it’s a spy. It’s Google. But not really. Not yet.

“Alexa, tell me when you’ve worked out the kinks” may be well and good for consumers who have not yet seen the capabilities and convenience prove more valuable than the intrusiveness, limitations, and loss of privacy. Working professionals and industry cannot afford to take this approach. By looking at the history of telecommunications, we get a glimpse of what lies ahead.

Consider the telegraph. These text messages of yesteryear hit their stride in 1837. But the telephone and phonograph lagged until the 1870s, while the radio was nothing until the turn of the century. Audio technology may advance slower than visual communications, but when it catches up everything changes.  

To use a more recent metaphor, smart speaker technology today is more like the days of dial-up internet access. When broadband stepped onto the scene around 2003, things got interesting. Entertainment, commerce, information storage and mobility were all radically transformed in the decade that followed. Google, Apple, or Amazon, your smart speaker may be acting like America Online at this moment. However, 5G is going to help it catch up in short order. In simple terms, that means digital information is about to be processed between 10-100 times faster than it is today and should be available from coast to coast in the next 12-24 months. Now consider that, in 2019, smart speakers are expected to grow faster than any other IoT device category. 

It is said we are entering the post-smartphone era. We will not use this venue to explore the privacy implications or Muskian concerns of cyborg wars nor robot dictators. These topics have their place, but our immediate aim is to side-step them. Our chief goal, dear reader, is to help you stay employed and thriving as these technological advancements march forward, with the wind at your back rather than blowing against you.

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So what comes next? With this new speed of information processing, you will suddenly find your smart speaker smarter—and growing more so every day. No longer just a device that can listen and respond. It will move toward more advanced prediction and personalization as making recommendations from machine learning will become exponentially more sophisticated and useful. 

Imagine calling a customer service line where extroverts would rather deal with the machine than a live agent. Soon, it’s also a companion who shares your interests and converses with you about them in ways we have only seen in fiction. Your smart speaker is a coach and a teacher. This teacher, however, has all the world’s knowledge and can distill it into words and voice that appeal to your personal learning style and preferences. Siri takes on the voice of your desired celebrity, like what Waze does today, but directing you through your life—not just traffic—and infinitely more adaptable. It can play nanny to your child while you’re cooking or help with homework. Alexa is your therapist.

Remember social media? How would you like to be transported into conversations with someone whom you’ve never met but are more compatible with you than 99.9% of the people you encounter in-person. Perhaps this could help in dating. Don’t bother filling out a profile, as your smart speaker has been filling it out for you as it observes your interactions and interests during your every waking hour for years. Wait until it matches you with compatible users live, based on any criteria you can think of, ready to explore any topic. The world just became infinitely smaller. 

As the IoT evolves with equal rapidity, the usefulness of your smart speaker will be amplified by devices dealing with other senses. How will sound engage with sight, smell, taste, and touch? Are you hungry? Wearable technology will know what food will balance your taste preference, mood, weight goals, nutrient deficiencies, food allergies, and more so that you don’t have to think of what you want for dinner. Approve Alexa’s suggestion, and a drone will deliver the perfect meal to your door in minutes.

Are you lonely, but don’t want to deal with human interaction? Proxies of real people await your company. Recorded data from other users can be accessed, forming a composite of that person to provide a credible approximation of what statements they might make, how they would respond to your question, their voice—with their speaking patterns, accents, intonations, vocal tics, and incredible likenesses. The more data that has been captured by or about an individual, the better they can approximate them. In the absence of data, it can extrapolate from what is known and statistically give probable statements from lookalike personas. You can now watch any movie, show, or sporting event with anyone you desire, whether you’ve met them or not. Adjust the settings if you would rather that they hold their complaints.

It can raise the dead.  

What would Abraham Lincoln do? At some point, an apparition will tell you. Once all his speeches, letters, testimony from witnesses, images, and recreations have been fed into a central learning system, 3-D Holograms may bring his being into your physical space. How many others have passed away that are now available to engage with you?  

How far are we from AI learning so much about our preferences and response patterns that it can effectively predict our thoughts and decode our imagination? At what point will it know what we want before we want it as well as what we are willing to do to get the things that we want? The possibilities may be too extraordinary to consider for our immediately practical purposes. 

How, then, shall we live? One stage at a time. When we bought our first iPod, we didn’t know we were creating the podcast industry or that this device would evolve into the smartphone. The first step is to understand that your smart speaker is more than a modern radio to keep in your home. It is infinitely learning and expanding in its ability. We have discovered a new world, and now it is for us to till the soil.

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TBD: The CALL TO ARMS

Think back a quarter of a century. If you knew then what you know now, what would you do differently? How would you direct your energy to be ready for a world of web pages and search engines? Let’s start here. Pay less attention to every shooting star lest your back be turned at your only chance to catch Hailey’s Comet. The Internet of Voice has finally arrived. The next ten years will be unlike any time in human history. Now, what are you going to do about it?