Amrita Nair-Ghaswalla
Agrahyah Technologies, a solution provider for voice-first platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, has launched India’s first ‘voice agency’ to assist brands in customer engagement.
Sreeraman Thiagarajan, co-founder, Agrahyah Technologies, says: “It will help create a brand’s presence on voice platforms such as Alexa and Google Assistant through a combination of technology and content.”
The voice agency will also integrate voice as an UI for digital assets. For example, he said, it can help navigate and complete an entire banking transaction from a banking app without having to touch or type any command. The voice agency will also help brands have a sustainable content strategy for engaging customers using voice as a medium.
Thiagarajan said the voice agency will provide consultation to brands to choose the right platform based on the target audience.Agrahyah has already been working with multiple Indian brands over the past six months, helping create relevant technological solutions and content for Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. It is Amazon’s preferred partner for Alexa Skills development in India.
Steady transformation
Noting that brands have always relied with a technology partner to create digital assets such as websites, and mobile applications, Thiagarajan says high penetration of internet usage means brands must also create content at sustainable levels or they risk losing engagement opportunities with their audience.
Over the past few years, thanks to the growth in applied artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, Cortina and Google Assistant have steadily transformed the personal and professional way in which humans interact with computers and machines. Pointing to data, the official said 28 per cent of online search is already voice-based, with the number reportedly growing multiple times year-on-year.
Given the inherent potential to reach out to consumers with visual disabilities or are illiterate and non-English speaking , voice offers vast potential for innovative brand engagement, says Thiagarajan.
“Just as the invasion of digital and social media marketing disrupted the traditional media landscape and eliminated barriers between brands and consumers, voice enabled services are creating a new playground with new rules for brand engagement and recognition,” he said.
Voice search and screen-less content consumption are growing rapidly across the world. Apart from engaging with consumers, voice also holds a huge potential for driving direct purchase behaviour.
During the 2017 holiday shopping period in the US, 25 per cent of shoppers utilised voice assistants, with data showing that 40 per cent of adults tend to use voice search every day for making multiple purchase decisions.