eMarketer: More than a third of the U.S. uses voice assistants monthly

eMarketer found that the audience for voice assistants in the United States is reaching a critical mass. The company projected that 111.8 million people in the country would use a voice assistant at least monthly in 2019, representing 33.8% of the population. It anticipated that audience growing to 122.7 million, or 36.6% of the population, by 2021.

As voice technology becomes more mainstream, the rate of change in the number of people regularly using those tools is expected to slow. This year, eMarketer is estimating that the percentage change in monthly voice assistant users will by 9.5%. By 2021, the rate is expected to dip to 4.3%.

eMarketer found that smartphones were the most common hardware choice for voice assistants. It anticipated that 97.9 million people would use voice on their smartphones at least once a month this year, with the audience projected to reach 107.9 million in 2021.

Smart speakers are a smaller hardware audience, but could see steady growth in the coming years. eMarketer’s forecast for 2019 expects 77.6 million monthly users in the U.S., and projected increasing to 88.7 million monthly users for 2021.

Anna Washenko