The Mechanical Turk toured Europe in the late 18th century. Advertised as the world’s first automated chess-playing machine, it beat matches against Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Known as a “turk” due to the life-sized model of a head and torso, dressed in Ottoman robes and a turban, the model’s arm moved the chess pieces and the cabinet beneath contained cogs and machinery. However, it was eventually revealed to be an elaborate hoax with a human chess master hiding inside the machine.
What’s this history story got to do with anything?
In prototyping, similar techniques are used to test ideas without building the technology. A customer has the illusion that the machine works, but it is a person doing the tasks behind the scenes. This is known as the Mechanical Turk or alternatively the Wizard of Oz (where the powerful wizard is an ordinary man behind a curtain).
I realised that I’m the Mechanical Turk version of a voice assistant for my Dad. My Dad doesn’t need a voice assistant because he has me. I am his Alexa.
How does it work?
He thinks of something he wants to buy
He calls me. I use Google to do a search (or go straight to eBay/ Amazon) and suggest options at different price points.
He selects one.
I purchase using our pre-arranged method of payment and arrange for it to be sent to his house.
It arrives, and he is happy.
As time has gone on, he sometimes fulfils the research task himself. This doesn’t necessarily speed up the task – last week, I received a photograph of his computer screen showing the item on Amazon. No, not a link to the page. No, not even a screenshot of the page. A photograph from his phone of the computer screen.
But this approach is way easier (for him) than shouting at a voice assistant. And more convenient than going to the shops.
Perhaps this is a clue as to why much-lauded voice assistants have not had their anticipated impact. A few months ago, I did a poll on LinkedIn to understand how people used their voice assistants. Overwhelmingly, the response was as a glorified jukebox and a kitchen timer. One or two used the fully integrated home hub, turning lighting and heating systems on and off and stalking visitors via doorbell CCTV. Given that the audience contains many people working in digital transformation and innovation roles, what can we take from this?
In November 2022, Ars Technica claimed that Amazon Alexa was a “colossal failure” and set to lose $10 billion. Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year | Ars Technica
So, where have Amazon (and Google Home and other providers of home hub voice assistants) gone wrong?
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I’m pegging it on a business model problem. In many ways, the technology itself is amazing and there are around a billion interactions a week.
But the hardware is sold at cost or close to cost. As per my straw poll, most of those billion interactions are trivial and not monetizable. In 2022, some of the most asked Alexa questions in the UK1 were:
Alexa, what’s the Liverpool score?
Alexa, how tall is Rishi Sunak?
Alexa, what is Elon Musk’s Net Worth?
And attempts to create commission from, say, ordering a pizza haven’t created viable levels of sales. The obvious next steps might be to stream ads but who wants a kitchen timer that requires you to listen to ads before your timer is set?
Voice is not a more convenient way to buy products that need any level of research, nor does it reach the levels of trust required to commit to high-value items. And adding low-value items like groceries to an online basket is not a compelling enough use case to warrant commission.
Amazon tried to justify a halo effect but it turns out there isn’t a significant correlation between Alexa usage and Amazon spend either.
In the short term, the corporate answer is to spend less and downsize those divisions while they wait for someone to magic up a business model that works. Neither Google Home nor Apple’s Siri appear to have the answer either.
In the medium term, I guess I’m going to be the Mechanical Turk for a while yet.
Homework:
Want to make more use of your smart speaker? Here’s a handy list of tips and tricks from consumer organisation Which. Complete guide to Amazon Alexa: best Alexa commands and skills - Which? I might try asking it to read out a Kindle book. Let me know if you find something cool. If you find something cool that is monetizable then remember me this time next year when you are a millionaire.2
Until next time.
The Round-Up
What we’ve been enjoying?
Cana has invented the replicator from Star Trek - like a sodastream on steroids, I want this to be true - a vending machine that can make any drink