Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Chatbot, Smart Speakers), By Technology, By Application (BFSI, Healthcare, Education), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027

Report Overview

The global intelligent virtual assistant market size was valued at USD 3.7 billion in 2019, growing at a CAGR of 34.0% over the forecast period. The need for improved efficiency across service-based companies and the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) among various devices such as tablets, computers, and smartphones, is anticipated to boost the market. Intelligent virtual assistant is capable of fulfilling a wide range of customer service roles such as ease to navigate, offer product information, assist customers in paying bills, and carry out transfers or complete forms, and direct problem queries to human agents in customer service. Such factors are prompting banking and financial institutions across the world to integrate intelligent virtual assistant, leading to industry growth.

Intelligent virtual assistants are efficient and perform various functions for enterprises across retail, IT, banking, and automotive. Additionally, they deliver better conversational responses, which enable enterprises in improving the customer experience. Intelligent virtual assistant vendors are actively working on accommodating regional languages and provide customized intelligent virtual assistants so that customers from different geographies can easily communicate. Intelligent virtual assistant has enhanced smart home and security solutions. For instance, Amazon.com, Inc. completed the acquisition of Ring (U.S.), a company providing solutions related to home security with a range of smart cameras and video doorbells. The acquisition will assist Amazon.com, Inc. in the integration of voice-based technologies into the home security products provided by Ring.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trends, and technological advancements have led to the advent of working distantly. The improvements over the years have resulted in the increased usage of cloud-based tools such as Skype and MS Office Online. With the usage of these cloud-based tools, it represents that an increasing number of people are working remotely and are highly dependent on the intelligent virtual assistants to perform their tasks. Therefore, it offers enormous opportunities for market growth.

The intelligent virtual assistant acts as a crucial factor in mitigating driver distraction as several infotainment commands can be executed through voice-enabled intelligent virtual assistants. Companies are implementing the AI-based intelligent virtual assistant in vehicles that can perform tasks like suggesting the destinations based on the calendar and optimizing driver productivity by providing news, reading out emails, and messages. For instance, In September 2019, Skoda announced the integration of intelligent virtual assistants in its vehicles, which can be accessed through vocal commands and currently supports six languages.

Product Insights

The smart speaker segment is expected to grow at the fastest rate of 34.5% over the forecast period. The residential consumers mainly use smart speakers for day to day tasks. In addition, there has been a notable demand for the adoption of smart speakers in smart offices and automotive applications. For instance, Alexa (Amazon) can be used for turning lights on/off, controlling smart appliances such as HVAC systems and music systems, streaming music, and setting alarms and reminders. The increasing need for a convenient lifestyle has led to the wide adoption of smart speakers and is anticipated to drive the intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) market in the coming years.

Chatbot is expected to hold the largest share of the overall market in 2019. Chatbot has broad adoption in banking and insurance sectors, retail industry, and educational portals. They help to access the required information and facilitate the end-users with ease of operation. Chatbot has gained market attraction and had the highest adoption in the healthcare industry. With the help of text/speech/audio, these bots help physicians, nurses, patients, and their families at various levels of life. The growing number of social media platforms and the need to understand customer behavior is anticipated to drive the demand for chatbot in the coming years.

Application Insights

Automotive is emerging as one of the fastest growing segment in the IVA market, which is expected to witness continuous growth over the future. Integration of intelligent virtual assistant with the infotainment system contributes towards delivering personalized content as well as improves the comfort and convenience. Several companies such as Daimler, BMW, and Hyundai have integrated voice enable infotainment systems into their vehicles. In January 2020, Amazon launched Echo Auto, a voice assistant device that contributes towards enhances driving experience. Several companies are investing in developing the advanced intelligent virtual assistant for the automotive platform to tap the full potential of the segment.

Intelligent virtual assistant in healthcare enables connectivity and interaction between the providers and the patients, resulting in the increasing demand across the segment. It provides continuous tracking of patient’s condition through smartphone and captures data through voice. Moreover, the device uses natural language processing to understand the need and condition of the patient and reports with meaningful data. Furthermore, hospitals use IVR to perform tasks such as scheduling appointments and requesting lab results. This improves patient engagement and reduces healthcare inefficiencies. Moreover, VA provides round the clock assistance, which fuels the market.

Technology Insights

Automatic speech recognition technology is expected to grow at the fastest rate of 35.6% over the forecast period owing to the wide adoption of smart speakers in various sectors. Smart speakers recognize the speech and respond to the speech generated by the consumers in a predefined manner. Rising adoption of mobile computing technology across the world is expected to boost the demand for automatic speech recognition segment. The technology makes it easier for customers to interact with smartphones and its applications. Major smart speaker manufacturers such as Amazon-Alexa, Google Home, and Bose are based out in the U.S., hence, most of the products are launched and shipped early in the region.

The text-to-speech recognition segment was valued at USD 2.2 billion in 2019 and is expected to expand at a steady CAGR, owing to versatile application of the technology that benefits businesses, consumers, educational institutes, and personal users. Furthermore, it allows content owners to respond to different needs and desires of users and the way they interact with the content.

Regional Insights

North America is held the largest share of the overall IVA market in 2019. Changing BYOD trends have led to the emergence of remote working. Working remotely provides flexibility to the employees and allows the usage of an intelligent virtual assistant to speed up the work allotted. This further drives the overall work efficiency and productivity. Similarly, the healthcare industry within the region has recognized the benefits of intelligent virtual assistants and is focusing towards improving the efficiency of healthcare systems. The American Medical Association of Medical Colleges have projected a shortfall 40,000 primary care physicians, thus, the use of intelligent virtual assistants in the healthcare industry is expected to fulfill the shortage and deliver efficient and reliable solutions for health monitoring.

In the Asia Pacific, the market is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period owing to the growing retail and consumer electronics sectors in China. The development of AI-powered intelligent virtual assistants for professional conversation has exhibited that they are highly effective in providing services and performing business functions such as appointment scheduling, consulting, across various industries. Companies are launching products that enable an app or device to act as an AI agent. For instance, in July 2018, SBI Card (India) announced the launch of 'ELA' (Electronic Live Assistant), a virtual assistant for customer support and services. It is driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and is designed to improve the customer experience by providing appropriate and immediate replies to customer queries.

Intelligent Virtual Assistant Market Share Insights

Companies such as Intel Corporation; Amazon.com Inc.; Google Inc.; Nuance Communications, Inc.; Oracle Corporation; Apple Inc.; Microsoft; eGain Corporation; Amazon; Verint; IBM Corporation; CodeBaby Corporation; MedRespond; Next IT Corporation; CSS Corporation; Welltok Inc.; and True Image Interactive Inc. are the key players of the IVA market. These companies have focused on new product launch and expansion and are heading towards innovation. IBM Corporation provides an intelligent virtual assistant named Watson Assistant and offers a solution to automotive, retail, healthcare, travel, and hospitality applications. Nuance Communications offers an intelligent virtual assistant named Nina to automotive, healthcare, and other applications. The intelligent virtual assistants integrated with AI have created a massive storm and have exhibited various businesses and services across the globe. For instance, in August 2018, [24]7 Customer Inc. launched an intelligent virtual agent with emotional intelligence. Similarly, in November 2018, [24]7 Customer Inc. launched an intelligent virtual assistant named as [24]7 AIVA.

The companies have introduced intelligent virtual assistants in smartphones, desktops, tablets and other handheld devices. Some of the prominent companies such as Amazon Inc. and Baidu have introduced virtual assistant for their devices and provide customized solutions, which support multiple platforms. New product launches and partnerships are the major strategies adopted by the players operating in the market. For instance, in July 2018, Google Inc. is working with partners like Cisco and Genesys to build Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, which will replace the work in call centers. The software is named as Contact Center AI which will install intelligent virtual assistants that will first pick up the phone when a customer connects to a call center.

Report Scope

Segments Covered in the Report

This report forecasts revenue growth at global, regional, and country levels and provides an analysis of the latest industry trends in each of the sub-segments from 2016 to 2027. For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global intelligent virtual assistant market report on the basis of product, technology, application, and region:

• Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Chatbot

  • Smart Speakers 

• Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • Automatic Speech Recognition

  • Text to Speech

  • Text based

• Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • BFSI

  • Consumer Electronics

  • Automotive

  • Healthcare

  • Education

  • Retail

  • IT & Telecom

  • Travel & Hospitality

  • Others

• Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2027)

  • North America

    • U.S.

    • Canada

  • Europe

    • U.K.

    • Germany

  • Asia Pacific

    • China

    • India

    • Japan

  • Latin America

    • Brazil

    • Mexico

  • Middle East & Africa