New Globant Report Uncovers the Gap Between Voice Technology Investments and Preparedness in Organizations

SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native technology services company, releases its "2018 Voice-Activated Technology Report" ? a playbook for organizations to develop strategies and the necessary point of view for successful voice technology investments. The report found that while organizations are excited about the potential business benefits of voice technology, many are still looking to prepare themselves to be ready to take advantage of it as part of their larger digital strategy.

To better understand the state of voice technology adoption across today's organizations, Globant surveyed more than 600 senior-level decision makers on their preferences, investments and priorities for integrating voice capabilities into their organizations.

Globant found that the increasing adoption and normality of voice technology in the consumer market is struggling to successfully translate in the workplace environment. In fact, 44 percent of senior employees use voice-activated technology daily in their personal lives, and 72 percent use it weekly. These numbers drop to 31 percent and 53 percent, respectively, when it comes to using voice in their work lives. Meanwhile, another third (33 percent) never use voice technology at work.

"Organizations shouldn't just invest in voice capabilities because they can. The technology must take the end-user into account," said Juan José López Murphy, AI and Data Science Practice Lead at Globant. "As organizations continue to see voice as a key differentiator to the business in 2018 and beyond, it's important for them to remember that voice-activated technology should always be relevant, desired and make an obvious improvement for the people directly impacted."

Additional key findings in the report include:

• Organizations see the business value of investing in voice technologies. The top benefits today's organizations hope to gain by investing in voice this year include:  Faster customer service responsiveness (34 percent), connecting with consumers in a more conversational manner (23 percent) and improved search (22 percent).
  
  
• However, investment plans don't align with preparedness. Of those investing in voice technologies, more than a quarter (28 percent) plan to allocate between 11-25 percent of their budgets toward voice in 2018. Yet, only half of organizations (55 percent) feel prepared to use it, and just 18 percent have done specific research around voice to guide their strategies.
  
  
• Companies see voice as the key to being competitive. One-third of companies (32 percent) believe voice will prove their biggest differentiator from competitors. In fact, 75 percent of decision makers typically think of companies that offer voice interactions as more sophisticated than those that cannot.

"As consumers become increasingly comfortable with voice technology in their daily lives it's critical for organizations to start evaluating the best role for voice in their business and prepare accordingly," said Diego Tartara, CTO Latin America at Globant. "From improving internal operations to the customer experience, we can expect to see voice continue to transform the way business is conducted and add value to organizations across the board."

To download the full 2018 Voice-Activated Technology Report and learn about how organizations can prepare for the voice revolution, visit http://mkt.globant.com/voice.

About Globant
We are a digitally native company where innovation, design and engineering meet scale. We use the latest technologies in the digital and cognitive field to empower your organization in every aspect.

• Globant has more than 6,900 professionals in 12 countries working for companies like LinkedIn, BBVA, EA, and Coca Cola, among others.
• We were named a Worldwide Leader of Digital Strategy Consulting Services by IDC MarketScape report (2016 and 2017)
• We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.

For more information, visit www.globant.com.

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SOURCE Globant