Redefining consumer relationships through voice technologies

Voice technologies are becoming pervasive in consumers’ lives, offering brands a wide range of
opportunities to develop deeper, para-social consumer relationships that engender brand loyalty.
Much of the growing popularity of voice technologies is due to characteristics that closely mirror
human-to-human interactions. By examining how consumers interact with voice technologies,
we delineate their core functionalities (searchability, actionability, and sociability) and explain
how these functionalities prompt consumers to anthropomorphize the technologies’ mechanisms
and outputs. This process can result in the attribution of human traits of warmth and competence
to voice technologies, leading to the formation of para-social relationships. By leveraging voice
technologies, brands can potentially develop more intimate consumer relationships and enhance
brand loyalty.