Study: Google Assistant most accurate, Alexa most improved virtual assistant

“Two more studies analyzing interactions with voice search and virtual assistants were released this week: one from Stone Temple Consulting and the other from digital agency ROAST,” Greg Sterling reports for Search Engine Land. “The latter focuses on Google and explores voice search for 22 verticals. Stone Temple’s report compares virtual assistants to one another in terms of accuracy and answer volume.”

“The Stone Temple report is a follow-up to its 2017 virtual assistant study and, therefore, it can provide insights into how voice search results have changed and improved in the past year. The 2018 study involved nearly 5,000 queries, compared across Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant (Home and smartphone) and Siri,” Sterling reports. “What the company found was that Google Assistant was again the strongest performer, with the highest answer volume and percentage of correct answers.”

“Cortana came in second, and Alexa saw the most dramatic improvement in terms of answer volume but also had the highest number of incorrect responses,” Sterling reports. “Siri also made improvements but was last across most measures in the test.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Go, John Giannandrea, go!

Apple released Siri, the first modern digital virtual assistant, in October 2011. Amazon released Alexa in November 2014. Google Assistant was released in May 2016… Why is Siri not regarded as far and away the best, but rather as notably worse than those later entrants?

Mismanagement of the project from the software to the marketing. — MacDailyNews, February 8, 2018

SEE ALSO:
iPhone X owners are extremely satisfied with basically everything except Siri – April 20, 2018
Apple’s A.I. efforts get shot of adrenaline with Giannandrea coup – April 6, 2018
Apple’s latest hire should see Siri get seriously smarter – April 4, 2018
Apple hires Google’s A.I. chief to improve Siri – April 4, 2018
Apple is on a hiring spree to make Siri smarter – April 2, 2018
Former Apple employees reflect on Siri’s ‘squandered lead’ over Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant – March 14, 2018

29 Comments

      1. He destroyed it Already ..likeeverthing else he touches..

        Thats why siri is under Craigs care now…. lets hope he can fix what Eddy destroyed. ( and the F-ing freeloader is raking in millions annually … WTF for🤬 )

  1. For what it’s supposed to do, Siri is pretty good. It’s not a universal knowledge engine designed to answer arbitrary answers. I think that Alexa is being rewarded for the sheer number of “skills” it possesses. But certainly not all of these skills are useful. It seems to me that many of them must be the equivalent of the early iPhone “fart” apps, no?

    1. What it is supposed to do ??

      Its supposed to do what the competition does and better…… its a F-ing digital assitant. That is the realm in which its competing in.. not lala land.

  2. Siri and Apple Ai.. from basic spell check to contextual understanding to personalization to voice recognition to search to consistant implrmentation across the ecosys Are:

    ABYSMAL , EMBARRASSING, JURASSIC… compared to the competion… including MS and even ebay for heavens sake..

    And its the weakest link that, imo, seriously puts Apple in danger of becoming irrelevant. …..its Alarming.. and its present state preplexing. ….
    How could Apple have made so many fundamental mistakes…( including pros/ power users, schools ….etc)

    AI is core to future tech..
    Do or die
    Hope their new hire and management focus turns this around aggressively ..
    Not doing so immediately is absolutely not an option….

    Very concerned.

  3. Is there an executive in Apple responsible for the SIRI product line?

    Is there an executive at Apple responsible for the Mac computer line with sales targets and P&L responsibility?

    Is there an executive responsible for the Apple Pay sales and P&L?

    What about executive responsible for the Apple TV business unit P&L TV?

    The truth is THERE is NO EXECUTIVE responsible for achieving quarterly growth in each of the major product lines at Apple. Amazing but true. No accountably for building the best and most profitable MacBooks, or pro Macs, or streaming TV devices or mobile pay revenue and profits. Apple is the most mismanaged company in Silicon Valley. It is coasting on the brilliance of Steve Jobs and the iPhone for the past 7 years. Tim Cook is doing nothing to maximize performance or to amaze new customers with great new products. There is a ton of money spent already on Car things that nobody wants, but nobody is bothering to maintain the Mac computer line, which is still a very big and profitable business. And Apple is dumping a strategic product line in the Airport Express for no good reason. It is criminal how poorly Tim Cook is running Apple.

    1. Yeah this is a problem and seemingly why things aren’t working at Apple. This is Business 101 setting up and delegating the various departments with talented tech executives and meeting with them regularly for progress reports and verifiable advancements. It’s the only thing that explains just how badly even Macs have been managed.

      I kind of wonder if Phil, Craig and others aren’t in fact not stepping up or offering better advice in order to make Tim look bad, fail and thus hasten the day one of them may step into Tim’s shoes.

      Tim needs to get a whole lot smarter about managing Apple and delegating authority. I have no idea what goes on behind fruity doors but based on current issues “Cupertino, we have a problem.”

    2. Of course there is an army of P&L trackers at Apple. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. instead of devoting attention to delighting the customer, Apple today scientifically designs to the minimum that they think will sell. When the sales of an old product declines against an onslaught of very good completion, Apple beancounters calculate that the executives would pocket more bonuses by pleasing Wall Street with buybacks instead of doing the hard work of keeping hardware and software fresh and best in class. The magic is long gone.

      1. There may be an army of accountants but there are no Executives with bottom line responsibility for the major product lines. That is why MacBooks can go for years with no update, or the Mac Pro for 5 years with no update, when any excellent company would never let this happen. The lack of organizational structure and product line responsibility is inexcusable and will destroy Apple.

  4. “Is there an executive in Apple responsible for the SIRI product line?”

    No, all important (read; competent) executives have apparently been silenced by the iron fist, SELF-PRESERVATION management style by a CEO who has no technical flair (yes, I know he has some technical background that is apparently useless and not backed by the natural ability to look ahead). We no longer hear the voices from any other executives. Cook has been managing the supply chain logistics with able helpers. He is not exercising imaginations, except nightly manipulation and review of G/L and P/L on his iPad, blinded by the money brought in by the iPhone, which is not even his innovation. Now a dark shadow is approaching his favourite phone business. Where is he going to take us to? Competitions, whom we used to laugh at and dismissed are getting better, wiser, smarter and bolder by each day. I admit I have to admire them. I am finding myself more leaning toward them each day, even just for satisfying my curiosity and for the sake of experimentation. I never thought this way before, but I might find the greener side of the walled garden after all.

  5. Is the problem with Siri the privacy policies that Apple has has put in place? I know Apple uses differential data collection, but the other assistants suck in any and all personal data without any restrictions whatsoever. With the Facebook privacy debacle, will the other AI assistants come under more scrutiny? I think they should.

    1. That’s a good part of it, but I guess it’d be good to take a look at the list of questions. There are some things that, if Apple sticks to their guns, Siri will NEVER be good at.

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.