Voice-recognition market to reach $58.4 billion in 2015

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Voice Recognition: Technologies and Global Markets.

The reports says that the voice recognition technologies market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8 percent between 2010 and 2015. The total market is valued at an estimated $38.4 billion in 2010 and is expected to reach $58.4 billion in 2015.

That growth will spur additional growth in two related markets:

• Voice recognition software technologies need hardware to transmit the signals as well as abate ambient noise. This sector of the market is worth an estimated $16.5 billion in 2010 and will grow at a 9.8 percent CAGR to reach $26.3 billion in 2015.
• Automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech software work together to voice-enable many applications. Software sales will increase at a CAGR of 6.8 percent, from a value of $13.6 billion in 2010 to a value of $18.9 billion in 2015.

The report notes that voice recognition is no longer narrowly associated with assistive and customer care applications. Rather, voice recognition technologies are becoming integral parts of products and services that span a much broader range of industries. With worldwide software revenues expected to reach $18.9 billion by 2015, this maturing industry owes much of its growth to advances from the critical triad of automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and speaker verification (SV) technologies.

The report says that companies across all sectors, seeking a competitive edge that will differentiate them in an increasingly crowded business environment, want products that can help them retain as well as grow their customers. Brokerages, airlines, and banks rely on voice recognition functionality to not only enhance their customer contacts, but also to comply with security requirements dictated by law and the security-conscious expectations of customers.

To address the rapidly growing mobile traffic demand of such highly developed regions as North America and Europe, voice recognition providers are partnering with manufacturers who are loading their products with voice-activated multimodal options. These applications do everything from help drivers navigate to their destination and workers voice-pick warehouse inventory to aid doctors automate medical transcription processes and allow Web users to browse by voice commands.

Marketers with a watchful eye are not only training their sights on the pent-up product demand of growing Asia-Pacific populations, they are also factoring in the potential of the emerging middle class in Latin America when they develop their marketing strategies.

The report notes that companies in the voice recognition space are facing similar challenges as other technology markets. Converging technologies offer the promise of new products and markets. But they also invite disruptive activities inherent in mergers and acquisitions — all occurring during bad economic times.

Customers are applying the same measuring stick to voice-aided products and services as they do to other products: They value accuracy, speed, and efficiency. Whether obtaining stock quotes from their smart phone, getting wake-up calls from voice-enabled alarm clocks, or accessing voice-translated-e-mail, consumers not only are increasing their expectations about the content quality but also about the quality of the experience.

Traditional habits persist, especially when it comes to customer service. No matter how compelling the content or efficient the voice-enabled transaction, many consumers still prefer to talk to a live operator. They also remember unsuccessful experiences with speech recognition applications that were implemented by early industry adopters.

Choosing voice recognition solutions also represents a significant information technology (IT) investment — a fact not lost on companies that, in better economic times, focus primarily on strategic growth. Compelled to keep discretionary spending to a minimum, companies are more inclined to purchase products and services that can show a quantitative return on investment. Traditionally, call centers, with their highly developed statistical databases and a multitude of speech-enabled processes, provide some of the most compelling evidence that properly integrated voice recognition applications can help companies realize cost savings of as much as 80 percent.

The report says that given the continued adoption of wireless devices and the seemingly insatiable consumer and business demand for unlimited access to information, it is likely that many enterprising companies will choose voice recognition solutions, either hosted at their site or shared in a cloud-computing environment, for competitive advantage even when the short-term economic landscape remains murky.