Voice and Contactless Interfaces set to play key role in post-COVID-19 Workplace

The 451 Take

The Coronavirus Impact in the Workplace

In a recent report, we looked at 20 trends encompassing some of the long-lasting impacts that will result from the COVID-19 outbreak. These fall under three main themes: a growing emphasis on virtual engagements, more empowerment at the workforce edge and the emergence of a new people management stack. Compliance with social distancing guidelines could accelerate these trends, making the use of voice interfaces in the workplace and the frontline digital experience even more relevant in the wake of COVID-19.

Frontline Digital Experience

Enterprise use cases for voice interfaces also include those involving frontline workers (i.e., those that deal directly with customers or are closely involved in the production process). This category includes healthcare providers such as nurses and doctors, first responders (e.g., paramedics, medical technicians and firefighters), and factory line workers. It also includes grocery store employees, drivers, and food and grocery delivery gig workers, which have become essential workers during the pandemic. These workers play a critical role in the distribution of goods and services, highlighting the relevance that the digital experience and real-time communications can have in the front lines.

Vendors such as Deltapath, Infinite Convergence and Orion Labs are using voice user interfaces and real-time communications to enable the digital experience for the frontline workforce, including healthcare organizations. Infinite Convergence recently announced the integration of its NetSfere mobile messaging service with Nuance Communications' Dragon Medical Server SDK to provide healthcare professionals with speech-recognition and speech-to-text capabilities.

Orion Labs provides capabilities that include voice user interfaces, real-time communications and location management services to support organizations in verticals such as transportation, services, retail and healthcare; it also provides integration with voice-enabled intelligent assistants to enable a 'heads-up, hands-free' user experience. The combination of these capabilities is particularly relevant for frontline and deskless workers. For example, transit operator Transdev, the largest private operator of transit in North America, and transit agency MBTA, one of the largest public transit systems in the US, utilize voice dispatch through Orion's web-based Dispatch Console, instant team communication and location management services to enable dispatchers to work from home to coordinate paratransit services, which are critical for seniors and members of the disability community.

Unified communications provider Deltapath supports hospitals, urgent-care centers and clinics with a vertical-focused approach that combines UC capabilities, such as presence, team collaboration, real-time texting and video calling, and push-to-talk (PTT) communications, with third-party integrations that include nurse call systems and sensors for real-time patient monitoring. Gunma University Hospital in Japan integrated Deltapath Acute to its medical record and nurse call systems. When a nurse call button is used, healthcare professionals receive real-time information on their smartphones – including critical information such as which button was pressed, the patient's name and room number, and immediate access to a patient's clinical records – allowing for a faster response time and reducing the number of steps required to accomplish a task.

Beekeeper, a digital workplace communications platform targeting dispersed work environments, is another example of how the combination of voice user interfaces with real-time communications can support the digital employee experience for frontline workers. The company recently announced a partnership with speech technology startup Whispr, which uses voice and mobile app technology as an augmented-reality component to improve the productivity of hotel housekeepers with voice-guided checklists. Similarly, Orion Labs is supporting frontline workers in hospitality with real-time communications and capabilities that include speech recognition and real-time language-translation integrated into their workflows.

These use cases exemplify how voice user interfaces and real-time communications can enhance the digital experience to support the frontline workforce, and how these features can be particularly useful during a crisis, when workers might be working long shifts to deal with a sudden and unexpected surge in demand.

Conclusions

• COVID-19 will change the workplace. For many employees, the pandemic will permanently change how and where they work. For those that cannot work remotely – and for those that eventually return – their workplace will be significantly different post COVID-19. The need to provide a safe environment will require measures that reduce interactions between people and maintain physical distance between them.
• Voice and contactless interfaces will play a key role. Physical distancing also entails avoiding contact with commonly touched objects, making the use of contactless interfaces in public places and common areas such as elevators and restrooms, quick-service restaurants, cafes, and building lobbies more compelling.
• The pandemic will accelerate digital transformation initiatives. The response to the COVID-19 outbreak and the need to provide a safe workplace will lead organizations to accelerate digital transformation initiatives, driving adoption of voice interfaces, biometrics and real-time communications.
• The digital experience will extend to the frontline workforce. The use cases featured in this report show the digital experience is equally relevant on the front lines; they also highlight how voice user interfaces, real-time communications and location management services can support frontline workers and help organizations further automate and optimize their operations.