We do not yet have a complete picture of the possibilities of voice assistance systems in business practice. Up to now, there has been no systematic approach to realising beneficial application scenarios. The Gartner Hype Cycle has established itself as a popular source for assessing technological trends.

Looking at the current hype cycle for AI, chatbots are currently at the top of the trend scale, while related technologies such as NLP and virtual assistants are already approaching the so-called trough of disillusionment.

In view of this, it is all the more important to get a realistic overview of the opportunities and possibilities of voice assistance systems.

The Smart Speaker research project aims to explore this for SMEs in the mechanical and plant engineering sector, and to develop the so-called Smart Speaker Playbook and make it available to SMEs to enable them to identify and validate application scenarios for smart speakers. For this purpose, we will evaluate the current status quo in relation to the needs of the industry.

The first interim results will be published here soon.

Cooperation partner: Institute for Industrial Management FIR at RWTH Aachen University

Funding body: The IGF project 20983 N of the Institute for Industrial Management FIR at RWTH Aachen University is funded through the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF) via the programme to promote joint industrial research (IGF) of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) based on a decision by the German Bundestag.

Project period: January 2020 - December 2021