Technology is increasingly forcing businesses to adapt and voice-activated assistants are no different.

Amazon’s Alexa is the latest in a string of in-home virtual voice-activated assistants that will allow consumers to complete tasks simply by talking. In a generation where time is precious, customers will be looking for the most convenient and quickest way to accomplish their tasks.

Consumers will want to interact with businesses through the use of voice-activated assistants and in order to remain current, businesses will need to adapt their technology to encompass these communication channels. Ensuring your website and apps are enabled to receive voice-enabled searches is the first step in transitioning to this new technology.

Having a good online presence is becoming incredibly important for retailers wanting to develop into cross-channel suppliers.

To use voice-integrated technology to your advantage, businesses will need to find a way of combining their online stores with automated replenishment services so that the likes of Amazon’s Alexa can encourage consumers to shop at ease.

Living in the technological era, its vital businesses are open to adapting to change and growing with their customers. Some of the larger retail brands are already beginning to incorporate voice-activated technology into their businesses.

Tesco have recently looked to create a more user-friendly shopping experience by beginning trials of allowing customers to order shopping through Google Home.

Reluctant to not let the limelight on Alexa slip, Amazon took their e-commerce battle a set further. Instead of simply implementing voice-activated shopping, to encourage the use of Alexa for shopping, Amazon created a series of ‘Alexa-only deals’.

To receive these deals, Alexa owners can simply recite the question ‘Alexa, what are your deals today?’ and they will have exclusive access to discounts on products based on their shopping history.

Amazon adapting their business to integrate shopping deals for their own product may not come as too much of a surprise however they are helping other businesses to adapt also.

Capital One recently teamed up with Amazon to enable customers to access their bank accounts using voice via Alexa. With this feature, customers are able to ask for information on their balance and make payments when they’re due.

Integrating voice-activated technology: What will it change?

Previously, telephony has been a major communication channel of choice by the consumer but with the surge of new technology, this channel was soon forgotten. It wasn’t until the implementation of social media that this long-preferred communication channel took a back seat.

Social media channels like Twitter and messaging platforms like Facebook and WeChat allowed consumers to have direct contact with businesses without sitting on hold, waiting for an advisor in a costly call centre.

These communication channels also allowed for customers to leave feedback or change their account details via interactive SMS messaging. This change of communication style was adopted effortlessly – and with good reason too.

A single agent can work on multiple customer queries at once over messaging platforms, allowing for more customers to be helped in a quicker time.

The future of the customer engagement channel is looking like it will shift back to the power of voice, as it once originally was, but it will remove the action of picking up the phone. The benefits of voice-activated technology enable the user to take a step back from their hand-held devices and rely on just their voice to complete daily tasks.

Are these changes in technology secure?

Security is a hot-topic for 2017, particularly when it seems the hacking of sensitive information is rising at a demonstrable rate. Admittedly, technology has created more security issues and Alexa follows suit with this trend.

The issue with voice-activated assistants is that they can hold personal data such as banking details or passwords of the home or office owner. This can start to become problematic when it comes to potential burglaries of the building or hacking into the devices.

However, Amazon seems to be tackling these issues head-on. The online marketplace has started trials to implement voice-recognition.

These trails have been under development since 2015 and so it shouldn’t be long before these are integrated into the likes of Amazon’s Alexa and Echo. The popularity of voice-activated assistants is bound to encourage a surge in biometric security to ensure users of the assistants that their financial information is kept safe and secure within the devices.

These new research trends are critical for consumers to adopt this type of technology and most importantly – feeling secure doing so. It is worth keeping an eye out on any specific announcements or news to ensure your business is keeping up with the technology.

Lorna Crowley is head of marketing at Engage Hub.