Artificial intelligence Voice and speech recognition – in business too
Voice and speech recognition has been around for a few years, but the Swiss have encountered difficulties with Siri and co. – or maybe it’s the other way around? And now there are plans to deploy it throughout the business environment too - including Switzerland? Yes, that’s right!
Be it at home with the Amazon Alexa and home automation, out and about with Siri commands and transcriptions on your mobile phone, or navigation systems in your car – voice and speech recognition is increasingly finding its way into our everyday lives. It’s simply become too convenient not having to type, cumbersome and time-consuming as it is, because with spoken language we are over three times faster than the fastest typists among us and it’s far easier for us to find the right formulation using language as it comes to us most naturally.
Various market studies describe the subject of voice and speech recognition as one of the technologies that are “racing towards us”. The graph below reflects its actual growth over recent years and ventures a forecast of its enormous growth in the near future – including here.

While voice and speech recognition is used extensively in other places around the world, we Swiss are a bit more cautious - not only from a cultural point of view, but also from a linguistic point of view. It’s not just the linguistic diversity in Switzerland that makes this technology hard to create but more so the complex dialects.
If the technology is to grow into a well functioning business solution instead of just a handy gadget, local languages and dialects need to be understood and data protection must be ensured.
But to what extent can these technologies assist us in the world of business and thus customer interaction?
Who hasn’t called a hotline and had to battle through a maze of button options for three minutes before having to get the call transferred manually because you’re unable to properly frame your query as a layperson? And of course, after being kept on hold in the queue before you finally get through to somebody.
Speech recognition solutions are increasingly being used for business and customer interactions. These can often process customer queries more efficiently and enable customers to submit their queries, receive information or take direct actions 24/7 in various languages.
The graph below shows the market share of various sectors (USA) and makes it clear how strongly the use of such business solutions will grow over the coming years.

Did you know that your voice is as unique as your fingerprint or face? Imagine not only being understood but also recognized personally and thus being able to interact personally and individually. Thanks to personal recognition, it’s possible for businesses to individually address your personal needs.
Unfortunately, Connecta cannot be held as planned. Stephan Fehlmann would have been one of 80 speakers. An alternative programme is available through Connecta TV, Doc and Talk – find out more at: www.swisspost.ch/connecta.
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