In this opinion piece, Melotti Media founder Christopher Melotti (pictured below) explores how voice-activated virtual assistants will significantly change the landscape of marketing, content creation and copywriting. The next revolution in technology and marketing is voice. The age of voice-activated virtual assistants and vocal command technology is upon us – Apple's Siri, Google's Home, Amazon's Alexa, Samsung's Bixby, Microsoft's Cortana, Ozlo, X.ai, just to name a few. History shows that the businesses who embrace new opportunities like this are the ones to reap to rewards, while those who lag behind become quickly ignored by customers. My message to brands: don't get left behind.

Prior to that, Siri made adding an event to your calendar or quickly looking up the weather as easy as a simple push of a button on your smart phone. At what point does "Siri, tell me the weather" or "Alexa, play music" become "I'll have a cheeseburger and fries" or "What aisle can I find the peanut butter on?" or "Does this shirt come in small"? As we move away from assistants who perform simple automated tasks, 2017 has the potential to turn voice assistant technology into a virtual customer service functionality. The convergence of chatbots and virtual voice assistants has the potential to completely change the retail experience. For years, we have heard rumors about quick service retail (or QSR) replacing humans with touch screen tablets.