We live in an exciting time, especially in innovation, progress, technology, and commerce. Some of the latest tech inventions, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are making a tremendous impact on every industry. Voice assistants powered by AI have already transformed the eCommerce trend. The eCommerce giants such as Amazon continue to fuel this trend as they compete for the market share. Voice interfacing is advancing at an exceptional rate in healthcare and banking industries to keep pace with consumers' demands.

We live in an exciting time, especially in innovation, progress, technology, and commerce. Some of the latest tech inventions, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are making a tremendous impact on every industry. Voice assistants powered by AI have already transformed the eCommerce trend. The eCommerce giants such as Amazon continue to fuel this trend as they compete for the market share. Voice interfacing is advancing at an exceptional rate in healthcare and banking industries to keep pace with consumers' demands.

Consumers have experienced the convenience of shopping with their voices, and they cannot get enough. The share of consumers who own voice-activated devices has doubled since 2017, with more of them using those devices to make purchases, listen to music or simply check the weather forecast than ever before. So, what is it about voice-enabled devices that consumers find most appealing, and how has widespread ownership changed connected commerce? In the third annual How We Will Pay Study, in with collaboration Visa, PYMNTS surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. consumers to learn all the ways in which they use voice-enabled devices in their daily lives. We take a closer look at how consumers are using those devices in the Just Say To Pay brief, in which we explore how owning and using voice-enabled devices increases consumers' appetite for other new, seamless ways to shop and pay.

Technology is revolutionizing almost every facet of the hospitality industry. Chatbots and Voice-enabled devices, the innovative breakthroughs of Artificial Intelligence, are gaining traction among young travellers. It is estimated that by the year 2020, customers can manage 85% of their relationship with a brand effectively without even interacting with a human (Source: Gartner). This new norm is bringing a paradigm shift in how guests are communicating with the hotel. It also enables hoteliers to provide exemplary services that last forever in the minds of the guests.

To see the full resolution version of this infographic that has higher legibility, click here. Steve Rabuchin, the VP of Amazon Alexa, has a vision. He dreams of customers having a conversation – not just with voice-enabled devices like the Amazon Echo, but with appliances, cars, and everything in between. Though that dream may not be realized in the short term, sales of smart speakers are increasing as people warm up to the idea of using voice-assisted devices in their homes. Today's infographic, from Raconteur, sheds light on the fight for smart speaker market share, how early adopters are using the devices, and the growing array of voice-enabled devices currently on the market.

Lisa Lacy is a reporter who covers digital and search marketing. Despite millions of orders for voice enabled devices, vendors have yet to map the uncharted territory of voice enabled search and advertising. Indeed, as voice search expands -- to the tune of 50 percent of all searches by 2020 (according to some estimates) -- so, too, do opportunities for platforms to cash in beyond products and services. In fact, in an earnings call last year, Google acknowledged voice search will drive industry-wide change, but it did not detail its plans. These devices are already in a massive (and growing) number of American homes.Amazon's Black Friday weekend sales saw millions of orders for voice-enabled devices that could help generate $10 billion in additional revenue by 2020, split evenly between device sales and shopping, according to investment bank RBC Capital.

If you've been waiting to see if voice-enabled solutions are the real deal or a flash in the pan, wait no longer. This year alone, more than 35 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, or Microsoft's Cortana at least once a month. Now is the time to get up to speed on voice-first technology. If you've used it, you know it as Siri, Alexa, Google, or Bixby. Underneath it all is the software -- many layers of it -- from voice recognition to artificial intelligence to voice-enabled apps.

To better understand how people consume media and marketing via voice-enabled devices, Adobe is adding voice analytics to the Adobe Analytics Cloud. Today, the company is launching a service that will track how users interact with the tools that media companies and brands build for Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant and Apple's Siri. The voice analytics offering will also integrate Sensei, Adobe's artificial intelligence and machine learning service, which will be able to make sense of trends within massive data sets. For example, with the software, companies developing skills (essentially the voice equivalent of apps) will be able to track performance across devices, platforms and how it all fits into the overall customer journey. The market for voice-enabled devices and voice assistance continues to grow rapidly, thanks in large part to the popularity of Amazon Echo and Google Home. Sales of voice-enabled devices grew by 39 percent year over year, according to Adobe's analytics data, and a recent report from analyst Mary Meeker found that 20 percent of mobile search queries in 2016 were made by voice.

The 2017 Voice Report is a look ahead at what to expect in the coming chat wars between companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Google, and Amazon. It's also a survey of Google Assistant and Alexa users, and a look into why some startups make more successful Alexa skills than others. The report was put together by VoiceLabs, a voice analytics startup tapped by Google for the launch of its Actions on Google, a platform for the creation of Google Assistant actions. VoiceLabs works with developers making Google Assistant actions and Alexa skills. The company was created last year by Alexandre Linares and Adam Marchick shortly after Marchick stepped down as CEO of mobile marketing company Kahuna, which he cofounded in 2012.