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Tutorial on Voice Technology Implementation

Perhaps you’ve heard about AI and Machine Learning’s popularity, as well as how these two techniques are addressing different markets as the future develops. Going further, as a part of AI and Machine Learning, there is Voice Technology, which is rising in demand. If you’ve been considering whether voice technology is worth paying attention to or if it’s just a trend, you’ll find this article useful. Even the most ardent doubters must admit that voice-based solutions are gaining popularity faster than many other advancements, which is highly questionable.

To dispel any doubts, let’s discover the statistics. According to projections, the number of voice assistants could hit 8.4 billion by 2024, surpassing the global population. Besides, Statista estimates that the worldwide voice recognition industry is expected to expand from 10.7 US$ in 2020 to 27.16 billion US$ in 2026. That being said, we can notice the huge expansion of the market, and that could trigger the majority of apps to correspond to the level and undertake an upgrade.

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Are We Wasting Our Time Writing UIs?

A huge focus and time suck in the last 3 years has been how do I write a better UI, what is the user experience, how do I relate to the user via a screen with text, colorful shapes, and maintain the brand? Many companies have launched initiatives to make the software user interface more usable, aligning the user to the business process. All of these efforts are backed up with some ROI. The density of data presented on a page is changing, UI designers and User Experience teams are monitoring and trying to figure out how to get just the right data on a screen and make sure that there are not too many steps to complete a task. This is a long and never-ending road.

Looking back is it really working? Are users happier with the new UI? From what I am seeing no, users cling to old UI’s for ERP packages like Oracle and SAP, they are afraid to upgrade because they have to retrain the user on the new UI.  Teaching people how to use an application and system is a daunting task. Even if the new SAP Fiori experience is better and role-based vs task-oriented, people still need to be trained on the UI, trained on the role, trained on the workflow, and people have to change what they are doing and learn something new and different.

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This Is How You Test Voice Apps in An Automated Fashion

Voice-First Testing — The Big Picture

We face different challenges when testing voice apps than when we test GUI apps. For instance, GUI apps limit the number of possible interactions a user might do. Voice, on the other hand, allows a much richer and complex set of spoken interactions, increasing the difficulty of testing. Additionally, the backend behind voice apps includes several components not owned by developers. These AI-powered elements are constantly learning and evolving by gathering insights from the myriad of interactions they receive. This is why they get constant updates and improvements, which requires us to keep up on our side by doing continuous verification to be sure nothing has broken, and that our app continues to deliver great voice experiences to our users.

We are witnessing a notable increase in the complexity of voice applications as a result of the effort companies do to provide enriched experiences that allow users to solve real and day-to-day problems. In this scenario, testing voice apps is a must.