Service and revenue models: How will we pay the robots? - Engine

"The next big step will be for the very concept of the'device' to fade away… The computer itself will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day." - Google CEO, Sundar Pichai Soon, most of our interaction with the digital world will be done in the easiest most natural way – by voice. Virtual assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant are in a race to provide the most valuable service to us. To do this - and to secure our dependence on them - virtual assistants will become highly capable, near omniscient, and masters of the rapidly-growing internet of things (IoT). The more we open up to these'voice first' machines the more they will help us. The most useful assistants will combine a deep understanding of the circumstances, attitudes and needs that govern our individual lives with the machines' access to the world's information, products and services.