Voice assistants should, if possible, have a female voice. 66 percent of users prefer this - and just ten percent a male one. These are the results of a representative survey commissioned by the digital association BITKOM among 1,163 people in Germany aged 16 and over, including 1,012 Internet users.

Men want a “she”

According to the survey, a fifth of users of digital voice assistants have no preference at all: they don't care whether the devices speak with a female or male voice. There is also a certain, although not too big, difference between women and men who use digital voice assistants: 60 percent of women also prefer a female voice - and 71 percent of men. Eleven percent of women would prefer to communicate with a voice assistant with a male voice - and eight percent of men.

There has been a notable shift in the past six years, notes BITKOM. Of 1,004 respondents in 2016, 39 percent were interested in the then completely new applications such as Amazon Echo or Google Home. Among them, 42 percent preferred a female voice, while 32 percent preferred to communicate with a voice assistant with a male voice.

Habituation effect occurred

“Digital voice assistants are becoming more popular. It is obvious that a habituation effect has occurred with regard to the voice. Because Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and Co speak with a female voice by default, users have gotten used to it,” says Sebastian Klöß, BITKOM expert for consumer technology.

The numbers come from the trend study “Future of Consumer Technology – 2022”, which this year focuses on the topics of Metaverse, AR & VR as well as streaming and voice assistants. It is available for free download: https://www.bitkom.org/zukunft-consumer-technology

Source: pte , Bitkom

Also read: Siri, Alexa and Co stress users out over time

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