The use of voice assistants among US adults is growing as both consumers and companies find more use cases for conversational AI technologies.

As of January 2022, 35% of people ages 12 and over in the US own a smart speaker, up just 2 percentage points from the year before. That’s following an increase of 6 percentage points year over year in 2021.

On today's episode, we explore the "madness" surrounding the NCAA tournament each year, customers' reception of QR codes, soccer's rise in popularity in the US, discounts on Amazon Alexa, gaming subscriptions on the horizon, rules around how soccer players can celebrate during games, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Ross Benes and Dave Frankland and director of reports editing Rahul Chadha.

Tripadvisor used conversational AI technology for a campaign executed on voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant with the goal of maintaining engagement during the pandemic, according to Adam Ochman, global head of marketing at Tripadvisor.

Even as tech companies pour money into the metaverse, space-based connectivity, and more sophisticated virtual assistants, they’ll face more pressure.

Smart speakers are most commonly used for general knowledge, with 31.4% of US internet users asking these devices general questions.