User interactions with “Alexa” in public academic space

Abstract

Intelligent personal assistants (IPAs), such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana and others, offer an example of an emerging technology with an uncertain adoption path. Evidence on how users adopt this technology is scarce, often anecdotal, and usually focuses on private uses and contexts. We conducted a study to examine Amazon Alexa adoption in a public common area of an iSchool. The study data were obtained from Alexa logs, observations of the public space, an online questionnaire, and interviews with students. Overall, IPA adoption trends among students were similar to adoption trends in the broader population and included using IPAs primarily at home for weather checks, quick references, setting an alarm/timer, and other requests. However, in a public academic setting, user interactions with Alexa were primarily characterized by questions about Alexa's features, “opinions,” and rhetorical or mindless questions or requests. Such interactions might be explained in light of the device's novelty, user curiosity, and the anthropomorphizing of Alexa. Many participants ignored the device due to the lack of need to interact with it, lack of awareness, or perceived awkwardness of using it in a public space. The findings could be used to inform improvements of Alexa's features, educate potential adopters about its current functionality and limitations, and inspire directions for future research.

Exploring How Older Adults Use a Smart Speaker–Based Voice Assistant in Their First Interactions: Qualitative Study

“…Lopatovska and Williams [ 8 ] have previously framed this type of interaction as personification with mindless politeness that “humans say to each other without meaning anything.” Our observation was different from theirs in that most responses made by our participants had distinct functional purposes. Some responding remarks were used as a cue to finish interacting with a voice assistant as they came back to speak with the interviewer or other participants.…”

“…Although new technologies are increasingly being introduced to revolutionize aging in place, the actual acceptance of these technologies is still low [ 8 ]. Thus, much effort has been devoted to identifying factors that influence older adults’ use of technology [ 4 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…Among several, one stream of research has focused on exploring the use of voice assistants in various contexts, such as different locations [ 15 , 16 ] or tasks [ 17 , 18 ]. Another stream of research has focused on investigating factors that constitute an effective conversation with voice assistants, either through personification [ 8 ] or using conversational cues [ 18 ]. Some researchers, however, argued that user experiences with voice assistants remain disappointing due to a lack of human-like conversational capabilities [ 19 ].…”

Personal data protection and academia: GDPR issues and multi-modal data-collections "in the wild"

“…In that study, visitors volunteered to talk with a robot, thus providing the researchers with audio-visual samples of informal, chatty dialogues. Recent examples are of Lopatovska and Oropeza (2018), who featured voice assistants of Amazon's Alexa in a public academic space for 24 days; of Bernstein (2016) and Moore et al (2017) who utilized a public interaction experiment at an art museum in Philadelphia; and of Siegert (2020) who collected interactions with Amazon's Alexa at a science fair in Germany and Austria for about 6 months.…”

It's Good to Chat?

“…Voice-only assistants in the form of smart speakers have been much studied in the home setting [18,21]; however, there is little evidence of research on their use in public spaces. In one study, Lopatovska and Oropeza [13] investigated the adoption of Amazon's Alexa by students and staff in the foyer of an academic building. They found that only 10% of foot traffic interacted with the Echo device, with survey participants reporting lack of need, lack of awareness, and the perceived awkwardness of interacting in a public space as their reasons.…”