PhocusWire: How voice command technology will change tourism in 2019

Throughout 2018, PhocusWire brought in-depth coverage of some of the critical topics impacting travel and organized by a different theme each month, phocuswire.com reported in the following article.

In March, their theme was voice technology. They looked at the characteristics of an effective voice interface and shared specific examples from companies including Trainline, Kayak, Expedia and Skyscanner.

There have been important developments since then. In June, Amazon introduced Alexa for Hospitality, and in October, Expedia created browse and book capabilities using Google Assistant.

Furthermore, Amazon is continuing to roll out new Alexa-enabled products, Google and Alibaba have developed AI voice assistants, Facebook entered the fray with Portal, a combination smart speaker and voice-activated camera, and many other vendors are jumping in.

These devices are expected to be popular gifts this holiday season, raising the value of the smart speaker market to $7 billion in 2019 and making it the fastest-growing connected device category in history, according to Deloitte.

To provide a look ahead on this topic, Say It Now CEO Charlie Cadbury offers his take on the top five developments in voice technology he expects to see in 2019.

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