Consumers Showing Early Interest in Banking Through Amazon and Google Smart Speakers

San Francisco, CA, April 18, 2018: More than half of all consumers surveyed would use Amazon’s digital voice assistant, Alexa, to make routine banking requests, including checking account balances (47%) and reviewing recent transactions (43%), according to a new report, Smart Speaker Banking Must Overcome Digital Inertia by Javelin Strategy & Research. The report calls on large banks to support emerging capabilities from Amazon and Google, while advising smaller institutions to play fast follower.

“The challenge for banks is in differentiating the voice value proposition from other digital delivery options,” explains Emmett Higdon, Director of Digital Banking at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Most consumers would not immediately mention banking as one of the reasons they purchased a connected home speaker. The bar is high for emerging channels such as home voice banking to deliver a compelling experience for day-to-day transactional tasks.”

While banks can test and learn from the current crop of smart speakers, consumer adoption will grow slowly due to security concerns and preferences for online or mobile channels, he noted.