Voice assistants will add nearly 30 million US users between 2022 and 2029, fueled by genAI, demographic shifts, and new hardware. Key adoption trends, platform battles, and marketing opportunities are shaping the next era of voice technology.

Apple’s Fortnite feud, Amazon’s device division cuts, and Apple Music’s new user lure reveal how tech titans are adjusting strategies in a volatile regulatory and consumer landscape.

With always-on AI, Meta’s next smart glasses could normalize surveillance as convenience—especially in a lax US regulatory climate.

With promised features missing, the rollout echoes a broader trend of overpromising and underdelivering in AI.

Echo users can no longer block voice data sharing as Amazon quietly makes off-device processing mandatory to train Alexa+.

Delays in core features could stall everything from Vision Pro to smart home devices, just as rivals double down on smarter assistants.

The improved Alexa finally debuts with better conversation skills and smart home features. Can Amazon convince users to pay when smartphones offer similar features for free?

Its reporters are adopting AI tools to improve efficiency. Despite clear editorial guidelines, the move could fuel media mistrust and alienate readers.

mazon’s ambitious upgrade is on hold after user complaints, revealing the difficulty of scaling conversational AI while preserving core Alexa features.

The US audience for voice assistants is nearing a milestone: 150 million users. Read on for figures from our latest forecast, including how many people are using smart speakers and how they use them.

In the two years since our inaugural “Power of Amazon” report, Amazon has remained a retail and tech powerhouse—but it hasn’t been immune to economic uncertainty, shifting consumer behaviors, or increased competition. We examine how Amazon’s 19 business divisions have changed and how these new developments might affect your industry.

As of February 2022, nearly 30% US households with Wi-Fi had an Amazon Fire TV device. More than 20% owned an Echo smart speaker, Fire tablet, or both.

When Amazon starts a new business, competitors scrap business plans and markets shudder. We examined 19 of Amazon’s divisions to help parse how the company fuels its flywheel to keep driving the virtuous cycle.

Amazon is maneuvering to become a dominant player in direct-to-consumer healthcare services, beginning with its online pharmacy and telehealth services for its employees. It may acquire more healthcare delivery outlets, such as primary care and urgent care clinics. Entrenched industry players are watching carefully.

As Amazon raked in more than $11 billion in Prime Day sales worldwide, health and beauty product sales boomed on the platform. In a survey conducted by Numerator throughout the event, 28.0% of US Prime Day buyers said they made a purchase in that category. Consumer electronics also made a spark: 27.5% of respondents reported buying tech gear and gadgets.

Has Amazon Echo reached a saturation point?

The connected TV giant’s focus on ad revenue and interoperability could give it an advantage over competitors like Amazon and Google in the smart home space.

Though several of the largest smart speaker developers—including Amazon, Google, and Apple—and other retailers hope to entice more shopping and buying via voice, consumers are not nearly as enthusiastic. As a result, we have downgraded our forecasts for smart speaker shoppers and buyers from previous years.

Amazon, which already holds a dominant position in the US smart speaker market, will continue to maintain this leadership through 2021, with approximately 70% of total US smart speaker users expected to use an Amazon Echo device, according to our latest estimates.

Amazon Prime Day has emerged as a massive midsummer shopping event that drives incremental shopping at Amazon and competing retailers while serving as the unofficial lead-in to the back-to-school shopping season.