Digital Assistants to Offer New Advertising Opportunities with Ad Spend Forecast to Grow at Over 100% Per Annum to 2021

Almost 80% of Assistants in-use to be via mobile devices.

Hampshire, UK – 5th September 2016: A new report from Juniper Research shows that increased use of Digital Assistants, such as Siri and Cortana, on smart devices will provide new paid search opportunities in the coming years.

Juniper forecasts that over $12Bn of ad spend per annum will be made through this rapidly growing medium by 2021, an increase of over 3,000% on estimated spend for 2016.

New Platform, New Opportunities

The new study, Digital Voice Assistants: Platforms, Revenues & Opportunities 2016-2021, found that besides integration into devices like smartphones and PCs, Assistants will be part of many home and automotive devices in future, creating new spaces for human-computer interaction.

These sectors will initially see the highest usage, paving the way for wider adoption of Assistants towards the end of the 2010s.

Improvements in artificial intelligence have led to a proliferation of programs, of which Siri, Google Now and Cortana are the best known. However, there are several others, from Amazon to Nuance, SoundHound and Vi, that will provide strong competition.

Privacy Concerns

As much of the technology grew out of voice search, Juniper expects Digital Assistants to follow a similar monetisation strategy, with companies paying to provide specific targeted results.

However, they often rely on data gathered about users, such as search and location history, shopping habits and demographic information, to be most relevant. This will be concerning for many, who are likely to eschew the technology for privacy and security reasons.

“Voice Assistants are a great opportunity to create more convenient ways to interact with devices,” remarked research author James Moar. “However, they need to balance the need for accurate data with consumers’ privacy needs, and this will drive changes in how digital assistants are programmed in future, in order to make the data secure and under the users’ control.”

The whitepaper, ‘Hey Siri, How’s the Competition?’, is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full research.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

For further details please contact Sam Smith, Press Relations.

T: +44(0)1256 830001
E: sam.smith@juniperresearch.com