Voice assistants still stars of CES 2018

Electronics with voice recognition AI are increasing, improving and drawing more attention.

When importing smart electronics, voice-enabled devices are the hottest to source right now. This year's Consumer Electronics Show reinforces the popularity of voice assistants. Voice assistants were big stars once again at the tech show in Las Vegas with more head-turning innovations integrating them.

Just a few days since CES' January 8 kickoff, tech giants already unveiled a lot of televisions, speakers, headsets, smart glasses and in-car systems with AI assistants. CES 2018 shows that Amazon's Alexa is now more ubiquitous than ever but it is worth noting that Google Assistant is getting wider integration as well.

For TVs, CES notable innovations that now or will soon support both voice assistants include LG's 4K OLED and Super UHD LCD TVs, and Hisense's 2018 TVs. LG's models listen to hundreds of voice commands while Hisense's units get dedicated buttons for Google Assistant. With many TVs like these emerging, voice recognition support is the latest must-have feature for smart TVs.

For music and multimedia gadgets, LG's Tone headphones and SK10Y soundbar, and Panasonic's UHD Blu-ray players will have the said assistants, too. Voice control was quite new in headphones months ago but now the supply of voice-enabled models seems to be increasing fast.

As regards CES-unveiled in-car technology, Kia's and Panasonic's infotainment systems are letting Google and Alexa join the ride, too. The voice assistants are finding new roles as remote car access, part, media and navigation device controllers. They connect automobiles and smart homes through improved speech recognition AI that will continue to have more applications in the vehicle industry in the next years, as market forecasts predict.

Other new Google assistant-compatible devices at CES 2018 are JBL's Everest headphones and Philips' kitchen TVs. Devices also tout easy voice recognition and control.

Another notable trend at the tech show is that other voice assistants are catching up and makers are starting to rely on their own AI instead of using Alexa, Google or Siri. Samsung announced that its 2018 TVs will have its Bixby assistant. Also making the news is Baidu, dubbed as "the Google of China", which put its own voice AI in CES hot products Fish VSI Smart Speaker, the Sengled Smart Lamp Speaker and the PopIn Aladdin projector. Another brand is Rokid, that had its voice AI on its latest AR glasses.

Importers and consumers can expect the pool of cool voice-enabled AI devices to get bigger in the coming years. According to market research and consulting company Ovum Intelligence, the digital assistant base will top 7.5 billion active devices through 2021. That figure is said to be at par or even more than the world's population by the forecast period. Moreover, Ovum reports that Google Assistant may outpace other competitors in terms of market share by 2021, which is expected to be 23.3 percent. Amazon Alexa will still be a "mega-hit", though, other firms predict. Ovum also sees an expansion of wearables, smart home and TV devices with digital assistants. The installed base for these is poised for a tenfold rise from the total active devices in 2016.

Given these predictions, voice AI is indeed a feature volume buyers must look for when purchasing next-generation electronics. If one can import multivoice AI-compatible products, the better, for the future of various digital assistants is looking brighter and the trend is here to stay for long.