One of the lower priority initiatives was enabling payments from connected devices like smart-home assistants, yet it was still cited by 28% of executives. Meanwhile, nearly one in five wanted to offer such payments in the future.
The ACI Worldwide and Ovum study specifically looked at consumer payment options provided by businesses, but voice payments also have the potential to include peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that in addition to Amazon working on gas station payments via in-car Alexa devices, the retailer also has a feature in development where consumers can tell Alexa to pay a friend or family member. The latter would compete with services like PayPal’s Venmo or even Zelle, which is offered by banks but is less buzzy.
In a November 2017 Capgemini survey of people in Western Europe and the US who already use virtual assistants, 28% said they had used a smart speaker or smartphone virtual assistant to make a payment or send money.