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How addictive are smart speakers?

Written by Tom Ryan

Photo: Google

According to the latest Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, 65 percent of voice-activated smart speaker owners “wouldn’t want to go back to life without” their Amazon Echo or Google Home. That finding exceeded the 46 percent of Americans who told Pew Research Center in 2014 they “couldn’t live without” their smartphones. One caveat from NPR’s survey last November of 1,800 consumers is the finding that only 16 percent of Americans own a smart speaker. But the survey still demonstrated how smart speakers are changing behaviors and causing owners to form new habits. For instance, when smart speaker owners were asked what other devices they are spending less time with as they use they increase their smart speaker usage, the top answer was traditional radio, at 39 percent. That was followed in the top-five by smartphones, 34 percent; television, 30 percent; tablets, 27 percent; and computers, 26 percent. Among the changing habits among smart speaker owners:
  • Seventy-one percent are listening to more audio since getting a smart speaker;
  • Forty-four percent are using the voice assistant on their phones more since getting a speaker;
  • Sixty-six percent use their speaker to entertain friends and family;
  • Fifty-three percent use their smart speaker with others in their household “most of the time” and 39 percent “occasionally.”
The survey also found owners eager to extend the technology to other parts of their lives. Sixty-four percent are interested in having smart speaker technology in their car, 60 percent on their phone, 54 percent on their television, and 35 percent at their workplace. Forty-three percent would be receptive to voice-assisted actions from companies or brands they follow on social media. A new global survey from Accenture similarly finds that two-thirds of smart speaker owners indicate they’re using their smartphones less for tasks — including entertainment, online purchasing and searches in general — since acquiring their voice assistant.

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