Google Assistant surpasses Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri again in terms of voice results

Bret Kinsella's research team wanted to know which voice assistant was best to ask questions about specific brands such as Chevrolet, Adidas and Starbucks.

For example, his team at Voicebot.ai, a voice computing and artificial intelligence research company, asked voice assistants hundreds of questions about brands, ranging from more general questions such as "What is lipstick?" more sustainable?" to specific types such as "How to contact JetBlue?" In all, they fed these robots over 4,000 queries.

What they found was dark. Google Assistant was the best, and it was not even close. In a new study released on Tuesday, Kinsella reported that Google Assistant on a phone had the correct results for 92% of queries, while Google Assistant on a smart speaker reached 81%.

The situation has gotten worse from there: Amazon's Alexa has reached 34%, Samsung's Bixby has reached 32% and Apple's Siri on the HomePod has reached 28%.

These results confirm previous studies that showed Google Assistant was the undisputed leader in voice responses, thanks to decades of work and sorting out Google's search results on the Internet. These studies show that Google could remain the main competitor of voice results for years to come, despite Amazon 's efforts to hire thousands of Alexa engineers and its huge willingness to expand the capabilities of his voice assistant. While Alexa still dominates the US market for smart speakers, with approximately 70% of devices already sold, Google continues to gain ground and could use its cutting-edge technologies to beat Alexa.

The results also show that Apple Siri continues to lag behind the competition despite its years of development.

Amazon, Google, Apple and Samsung have not all responded to a request for comment for this story.

The Voicebot team also found that if you ask Alexa or Google Assistant these basic questions about brands, such as "What is Chevrolet?" or "Where can I buy Starbucks?" – you will usually get an entry on Wikipedia or a comment on Yelp. While many brands are now paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to create and manage their own voice applications, Google and Amazon do not use them to answer these simple questions.

Kinsella thinks this is due to both brands and tech giants. Amazon and Google seem to prefer to address these issues to other parts of the Internet, including Wikipedia, Yelp and web searches. Brands, on the other hand, have been so focused on more complex voice applications, such as the Domino Pizza Delivery App, that they have missed the basics, he said.

"They can offer cool experiences," he added, "but can not answer the basic questions."

The two main voice assistants may be avoiding brand applications to keep their questions more neutral and less ad-like. After all, Kinsella's research indicates that some responses include negative information or competing brands, which is problematic for brands but may be beneficial to consumers.