Voice app (Google Action and Alexa Skill) : the influence of the assistant's voice on users
(A2023-112488)

AUTHORS

Nicolas KUSZ, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne; Jean-François Lemoine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

ABSTRACT

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.