ABI Sees Natural Language Chipsets on 2B Devices by 2026

More than 2 billion devices will be shipped globally by 2026 with dedicated chipsets for ambient sound or natural language processing, reported ABI Research Tuesday. Most current implementations “focus on simple tasks, such as wake word detection, scene recognition, and voice biometrics,” said ABI. But the coming of AI-enabled devices will enable “more complex audio and voice processing applications," it said. The June announcement that Siri will process certain requests and actions offline frees Apple’s voice interface “from constant internet connectivity and significantly improves the iPhone user’s experience,” said ABI. It expects Apple’s competitors “to follow suit and offer similar support” on operating systems “currently supporting billions of consumer and connected devices.”