How to use voice tech during COVID-19

For years, brands and agencies have hyped voice technology as a marketing game-changer. Still, even as the number of consumers using audio on smart speakers rises, voice has remained a minor player for uses like shopping. But the tech is poised to enter the mainstream with COVID-19 making consumers touch-averse, prompting marketers to find ways to make ordering as simple and contact- free as possible. “Up until this crisis, voice technology was the technology looking for a business purpose,” says Shannon Warner, VP of retail and consumer goods at Capgemini Invent, the innovation arm of digital consulting firm Capgemini. “Now, it’s tech that solves and therefore there’s mass adoption overnight.”