The Top 25 Brand Innovators in Voice for 2020
Voicebot unveiled our list of 25 brand leaders in voice today, showcasing how companies are engaging with audiences using voice platforms and tools. These brands are experimenting and improving the ways they connect to current and potential customers using voice and AI technology. The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to combat the virus defined much of 2020, including how companies approached using voice technology, and that impact is notable in some of the brands we have chosen to highlight. The specifics of how each brand took up voice tech are as varied as the industries and companies involved, but there are some trends and concepts that are gaining traction. Let us know what you think about this list on Twitter (@voicebotai) and who you think also deserved recognition that we missed this year.
2020 Themes
Universal Streams – A good number of the media brands we mention are on the list not so much for creating a new product as for expanding the outlets where people can access them by voice command. The Mayo Clinic has plenty of information about healthcare on its website, but voice apps make it much more accessible. The same goes for the virtual assistants offered by banks like Capital One and US Bank. You can get the information elsewhere, but AI and voice interfaces can be much more efficient.
Socializing – Our list this year shows how social media brands are starting to invest in using voice technology in more than one way. Snapchat, for instance, started letting people ask aloud for different photo filters, while TikTok opened a new control array by launching an Alexa Skill.
Partnership Push – Several of the brands we highlight are doing their most interesting work by working with others. Sometimes, the right voice app developer can help bring a vision of the experience to life, as Skilled Creative did for Meredith and Satisfi Labs for Major League Baseball. In other cases, the tools are flexible enough to build entire unique voice assistants as Mercedes-Benz did with Cerence’s technology.
Humor – An important element this year especially, it’s notable how familiarity with voice assistants makes it easier to include jokes and humor within voice apps and in marketing connected to voice tech. Without that familiarity, a virtual MoonPie roommate would be hard to understand, and making Alexa a soccer referee would just confuse people.
