People aren’t comfortable using virtual assistants in public

pulse

January 30, 2017 10:57 PM

Those who admit to using the likes of Siri and Alexa are much more likely to use them at home.

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Virtual assistants are supposed to be a linchpin of tech’s future.

Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, and others have all made big investments in the tech. Many of them are using the idea of a disembodied, information-fetching helper as a selling point for new devices.

But while these assistants are infiltrating more and more gadgets, they still face a few giant hurdles on their way to wider acceptance.

One is simple: People just don’t want to use them in public.

According to a June survey from Creative Strategies, those who admit to using the likes of Siri and Alexa are much more likely to use them at home (39%) or in the car (51%).

When they don’t have the comfort of privacy, and when their hands are free, those numbers plummet.

That said, things been moving toward normalcy — and the more familiar virtual assistants become, the more likely people will use them wherever.

If that ever happens, the next step is to hope they'll actually be good.

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