“The company has sought to make sophisticated AI a key selling point of its newest hardware products, and its rivals have also been pouring money into AI R&D as consumer expectations shift to demand smarter products and services.”

Google has updated the user interface for its virtual assistant platform, seeking to both accommodate use trends and perhaps to further encourage them.

In announcing the update on Google’s blog, Google Assistant VP of Product Manuel Bronstein explained that its the product of research indicating that almost half of all interactions with the platform involve both voice commands and touchscreen interaction. Thus the interface has been upgraded to facilitate both, with a kind of chat screen appearing during use: A user can ask for information about restaurants in a given city, for example, and then tap the information that Google Assistant displays in the chat to learn more.

It’s another indication of the growing centrality of AI-driven virtual assistants to devices’ user interfaces, and of Google’s growing focus on this technological area. The company has sought to make sophisticated AI a key selling point of its newest hardware products, and its rivals have also been pouring money into AI R&D as consumer expectations shift to demand smarter products and services.

Other new features of the updated Google Assistant include dials and sliders to adjust settings on connected smart home devices; an overview of one’s daily calendar on Android phones; and new development tools for third parties to help them improve their own integrations into Google Assistant.

Source: The Keyword