[AFP, June 30]”Hey, Google, order a large pizza!” “Alexa, I want some vitamins!”

Voice shopping using smart speakers and smartphones with artificial intelligence (AI) assistants is becoming popular among consumers. Voice shopping could create a new wave of “conversational commerce” and disrupt the retail industry.

Speakers equipped with Amazon.com’s AI assistant Alexa and Google’s Google Home use AI to respond to voice commands. , giving consumers new options as they seek more convenient ways to order goods and services.

According to a study this year by international consulting firm OC&C Strategy Consultants, the U.S. voice shopping market is currently valued at $2 billion (approximately 220 billion yen) and will grow to $4 billion (approximately 4,400 million yen) by 2022. It is expected to rapidly expand to 1 billion yen).

“What’s gaining acceptance is the convenience and natural voice interaction,” said Victoria Petrock of eMarketer, an Internet research firm. “Computer operation in general is shifting towards voice interfaces. It’s becoming cheaper and users are more responsive because they don’t have to type.”

In a recent eMarketer survey, 36% of respondents were open to using an AI assistant for their home, such as Amazon’s Echo speaker. According to OC&C, the shopping categories where voice shopping is most commonly used are food, entertainment, consumer electronics, and clothing.

Furthermore, the products that sell best in voice shopping are products that the user has already purchased before, so to speak, and do not require much thought, said a vice president at Capgemini, a French IT consulting company. President Mark Taylor said. However, as people become more familiar with voice assistants, he thinks sales of “more thoughtful products” such as insurance and financial products could also pick up.