Google Assistant To Overtake Apple's Siri, Samsung's Bixby, With Over 1 Billion Installations By 2021: Survey

Artificial intelligence (AI) based voice assistants have become common among smartphones since last year and are expected to continue on the growth spiral, at least till 2021, according to projections published Thursday by research firm Ovum. "Ultimately, a digital assistant is just another user interface. It will only be as good as the ecosystem of devices and services that it is compatible with. Partnerships between tech giants and local service providers will therefore be key differentiators," said Ronan de Renesse, practice leader, Ovum Consumer Technology team and author of the report. "Here is a disconnect between the'know-it-all, do-it-all' approach that current digital assistants are aiming toward and the highly personalized virtual assistance experience that consumers have dreams/nightmares about. Whoever can bring personal consumer data in a secure, non-creepy way to digital assistance will be able to bridge that gap and capture most of the opportunity."