Digital assistants will drive voice-based computing into a new age

A version of this essay was originally published at Tech.pinions, a website dedicated to informed opinions, insight and perspective on the tech industry. It's been a long time coming, but it looks like the era of voice-driven computing has finally arrived. Powered by the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and deep learning, the new generation of smart digital assistants and chatbots are clearly some of the hottest developments in the tech industry. Not only are they driving big announcements from vendors such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, they're expected to enable even bigger changes, long-term. In fact, as the technology improves and people become more accustomed to speaking to their devices, digital assistants are poised to change not only how we interact with and think about technology, but even the types of devices, applications and services that we purchase and use.