In the last few years, the use of smartphones has dramatically increased.
Number of smartphones sold to end users worldwide from 2007 to 2017 (in million units) Source: Statista
One reason for the increase is due to the virtual assistant feature like “Siri”, launched in 2011, followed by “Google Assistant.”
For instance, you or your child have probably used your smartphone or tablet to ask Siri a question or small talk to kill the time. Furthermore, as artificial intelligence increasingly becomes available on mobile devices and the interaction through keyboards or displays is becoming less necessary, a new kind of personal virtual assistant emerges. Today, there are three leaders in this space: Google Home (Google), Alexa (Amazon) and Apple HomeKit (Apple). The services they provide are more and more used
Smart Speaker Use Case Frequency January 2018. Source: Voicebot.ai
Even if the main usage of the assistant is for music, content streaming or to ask simple questions like a definition, translation, the weather, etc., in the future they could be used for supply chain planning business cases. With the emergence of a new generation of professionals, users’ habits are changing and evolving, therefore, business software is evolving to include features using artificial intelligence and smart devices like virtual assistants.
U.S. voice-enabled digital assistant users by generation (in millions). Source: Statista
Opportunities for Supply Chain Planning
For instance in the near future, interacting with your supply chain planning software could occur in your kitchen in the morning as you are getting ready for work.
For example, you could:
- Automatically create appointments in your calendar based on alerts triggered by the system
- Send collaborative messages to others involved in the project
- Take care of market event that would have impact on your own business
- And many more…
Do you think this is science fiction? It’s closer than you think!
