Hello from CES in Las Vegas! In a temporary lapse of sanity, I decided to drive here — 12 hours from Northern California. During that trip, I used Siri more than I have in a long time . . . and it was an absolutely dreadful experience. I also have HomePod speakers around my house, so I use Siri sometimes. It’s mostly okay, but this journey drove it home for me: Apple is falling significantly behind in the voice assistant race.
Key Takeaway
Siri’s inability to adapt to natural human speech and its lack of conversational capabilities are causing it to fall significantly behind competitors like Alexa and Google’s voice assistant.
The Downfall of Siri
Siri was one of the first voice assistants to be available on smartphones. It’s a great assistive feature, but it’s about as cutting-edge as a butter knife. I have a list of examples as long as the Dead Sea Scrolls, but here are just a handful.
- Siri uses 24-hour time format, making it less conversational and relatable.
- It struggles to adapt to the nuances and complexities of natural human speech.
- Compared to competitors like Alexa and Google’s voice assistant, Siri seems to be lagging behind by a significant margin.
The Need for Improvement
Sadly, Siri seems to be lagging the competition in this department by a country mile. Alexa, for all its foibles, is pretty clever these days. Google’s voice assistant has its stuff buttoned up tight, too. But Siri gets confused more often than not.
