Voice app (Google Actions and Alexa Skills) : the influence of the assistant's voice on users

Nicolas Kusz (1, 2) , Jean-François Lemoine (3, 2, 1)

1 UP1 EMS - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - École de Management de la Sorbonne
2 PRISM Sorbonne - Pôle de recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences du management
3 ESSCA Research Lab

Voice-activated virtual assistants (Google, Alexa, etc.) are becoming more and more a part of people's daily lives. Although their usefulness and functionalities are increasing, the voice interface between man and machine has not been sufficiently taken into account by companies that have developed their voice application (i.e. Alexa Skills or Google Actions) yet: the synthetic voice applied to the technology. Our research aims to measure the impact of the assistant's voice on consumers reactions. Based on 15 interviews of users, the results reveal that the type of voice of the assistant influences trust in the assistant and social presence. However, in contrast to studies conducted on virtual agents and chatbots, our research indicates that realism influences trust; a synthetic voice that sounds exactly like a human degrades the perception of the voice assistant.

Mots clés: voice assistant; trust; social presence; HMI

Domaines: Gestion et management

Nicolas Kusz, Jean-François Lemoine. Voice app (Google Actions and Alexa Skills) : the influence of the assistant's voice on users. 52nd annuel conference of the European Marketing ACademy (EMAC), May 2023, Odense, Denmark. ⟨hal-04108783⟩