A smartphone is a personal device that can always be with someone. Smartphones and related mobile devices are evolving into a form of personal assistant. It will be natural to converse with this assistant by voice, particularly considering the limitations of typing on the small devices. This talk notes the key features of such a voice-enabled assistant, the hurdles in achieving the vision fully, and possible approaches to overcoming those hurdles.

In a world rapidly filling up with smartphones that have information-rich user interfaces, what role does speech play? In the future, will access to customer service be mediated through mobile apps and will this make the traditional speech and IVR redundant? Will speech simply be a keyboard replacement or should we expect novel new paradigms? This talk explores these issues.