5 ways that future A.I. assistants will take voice tech to the next level

Since Siri debuted on the iPhone 4s back in 2011, voice assistants have gone from unworkable gimmick to the basis for smart speaker technology found in one in six American homes. "Before Siri, when I talked about [what I do] there were blank stares," Tom Hebner, head of innovation at Nuance Communications, which develops cutting edge A.I. voice technology, told Digital Trends. "People would say, 'Do you build those horrible phone systems? That was one group of people's only interaction with voice technology." According to eMarketer forecasts, almost 100 million smartphone users will be using voice assistants by 2020.