Voice assistant race heats up

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are expanding their efforts to capture a greater foothold in the voice assistant landscape. As voice becomes an increasingly important tool for how consumers engage with devices -- by 2020, the voice assistant device base is expected to grow to more than 7 billion, up from 4 billion in 2017 -- it will be crucial for these firms to solidify their place in the market. Here's how each tech behemoth is stepping up the competition: Meanwhile, Apple is building up an ecosystem of voice-connected devices, which is well positioned to corner off a swath of the voice market.