Speech-to-Text API Market Size, Share and Industry Analysis, By Component (Software, Services), By Deployment (On-Premise and Cloud), By Application (Contact Center and Customer Management, Transcription, Fraud Detection, Compliance Management, Voice Search and Others), By Industry (BFSI, IT and Telecom, Healthcare, Retail and Consumer Goods, Media & Entertainment, Education, Others) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027

The global speech-to-text API market size was valued at USD 1,321.5 million in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 3,036.5 million by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.0% during the forecast period.

Increasing migration towards voice-enabled applications is leveraging machine learning (ML), augmented reality (AR), and natural language processing (NLP) to automate the conversation. The growing popularity of smart mobile phones and smart speakers are leading to the adoption of voice enabled systems. Moreover, real-time support services and popularity of transcription encourage the industry giants to develop speech-to-text API solutions. For instance, in 2017, Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory Limited and Fujitsu Limited developed FUJITSU Software Live Talk, which is a communication tool for the hearing-impaired. The company added multilingual translation functionality to the system to support real-time communication and to immediately display translations as text on screen.

Considering the current COVID-19 pandemic situation, large enterprises and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to reduce their research & development spending on speech-to-text software and solutions which might disrupt the speech-to-text developments. However, the demand for such solutions is anticipated to see substantial increase due to social distancing and stay-at-home initiatives taken by the world. The adoption of these solutions is expected to exhibit high adoption in industries such as healthcare, e-learning, and media & entertainment to optimize the overall execution of operations.

The speech-to-text API market is further projected to showcase considerable growth due to increasing cancellation of conferences and events by technology giants. It has led to conducting digital or virtual conferences. As speech-to-text solutions offer faster transcription, low costs, and high accuracy, it is expected that multiple enterprises might adopt these solutions to speed-up the processes such as news and speeches given by political leaders and conferences.

MARKET TRENDS

Adoption of IP-based Interactive Voice Response (IVR) in Contact Centers Trending in the Market

Contact centers have developed from simplistic stand-alone activities distributed over a single platform to multi-site, multi-functional customer experience management systems. By using sophisticated speech-to-text solutions, it is possible to create a seamless and flexible framework to provide outstanding customer support. Businesses can also create an organized means of gathering consumer details and motivating call center agents. In April 2019, the GL Communications, Inc. developed a speech-to-text conversion application which is used for testing Voice Mail (VM) systems and Interactive Voice Response (IVR), as well as for voice transmission over any network and confirming voice prompts.

Speech-to-text technology helps contact centers to better grasp the voice of customers by doing in-depth data mining on customer communications. In addition to this, these solutions provide contact centers with an easy way to gauge their consumers and gain a deeper understanding of customer needs.

MARKET DRIVERS

Smart Speakers and Intelligent Voice Assistants to Drive the Revenues through Speech Recognition

In the last few years, the use of smart speakers and voice assistants, such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant has increased. As these devices are integrated into more households, voice-enabled apps are likely to radically transform how users participate with technology. Smart speakers have grown in prominence, with predictions that the number of households using them would rise dramatically in the coming year. Without a question, this evolution of voice enabled smart speakers provides fascinating possibilities, making it easy for users to navigate the internet environment or operate certain tools.

In addition to broader language assistance, smart speakers and voice assistants boost the quality of speech recognition, which can be extended and amortized through a wide variety of platforms. Moreover, increased availability of smart speakers which consume less power as compared to the previous ones has made an additional contribution to the growth of the market. 

Although, recordings obtained by voice assistants provide companies with fresh proof of data that can theoretically be utilized to profile customers in other areas – such as emotion analysis or also facets of mental well-being. Popularity of such intelligent voice assistants is likely to drive the growth of this market.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Incorporated with Speech Technology Promises to Increase Profits and Transform Businesses

With substantial improvements in natural language processing (NLP) and speech quality, advances in speech recognition technologies have led companies to create voice-enabled interfaces that meet the consumer standards. Tandem enhancements in AI, cloud computing, and information technology have empowered innovations such as voice-to-text progress at a remarkable pace, which contribute to augment the speech-to-text API market growth.

With advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, conversational devices are able to properly understand the speech which enhances self-learning abilities of the system. AI based speech-to-text conversion models are able to enhance accuracy and adapt automatically to the changes in languages. Speech-to-text with AI has become an ordinary service with the increasing application of these models. Further, AI-based speech and voice recognition systems will automatically capture the complete agent-customer interaction to provide hidden feedback and opportunities.

MARKET RESTRAINT

Privacy Issues to Impede Adoption of Voice-enabled Applications

Privacy issues regarding voice-enabled devices are becoming one of the major restraining factors for the market growth. Many subsequent cases about privacy issues from voice-controlled virtual assistants confine the adoption of voice-enabled devices. For instance, Google LLC was restricted by Germany’s data protection commissioner to listening Europe’s voice recordings in August 2019, as the privacy issue arrived by Google’s AI-based speech recognition technology.

SEGMENTATION

By Component Analysis

Services Segment to Experience a Healthy CAGR during the Forecast Period

By component, the global market is segmented as software and services.

With digital transformation, industries are directing rapidly toward automation and the smart era. With virtual assistant and artificial intelligence, voice recognition technology continues to develop. It is useful for services such as transcription software and the APIs. Moreover, the adoption of voice-enabled digital assistance, smart speakers, and many other voice-enabled applications increases the utilization of speech-to-text software. As the key players are engaged in the enhancement of the system by integrating it with machine learning and artificial intelligence, services are expected to grow in the forthcoming years.

By Deployment Analysis

On-premise Deployment Model Projected to Lead throughout the Forecast Period

By deployment, the market is categorized as on-premise and cloud.

Key market players such as Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, and Google LLC are offering voice technologies as a part of the cloud platform to enhance productivity, reliability, and flexibility. Key players are strategically partnering up with such leading companies to offer cloud-based speech-to-text software. Increasing investments in the cloud-based model are reflecting the future market growth in the cloud segment. For instance, in October 2019, Suki AI, Inc. partnered with Google LLC to integrate its voice-based digital assistant with Google Cloud to enhance the productivity and smartness of the product. Existing products and workflow platform integrate the API solutions in order to optimize accuracy, cost, and speed of the system. In terms of deployment, different flexible deployment options are available, so consumers can choose the cloud or on-premises deployment model. Industries related to communications, marketing, HR, legal departments, studios, researchers, broadcasters, and many more still prefer the on-premise deployment model of such API due to security concerns. Such security concerns are expected to supplement the growth of on-premise model segment throughout the forecasting period.

By Application Analysis

Customer Management Segment to Become Major Adoption Factor in the Forthcoming Years

Based on application, the market for speech-to-text API is segregated into customer management, transcription, fraud detection, compliance management, voice search, and others.

Most of the organizations, quality analysts, and business analysts are mining their voice data to surpass valuable customer insights into customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and quality across all the communication channels. Such APIs are widely adopted by contact centers as they create phone menus through Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR), as well as Omni-channel self-service tools and community forums on the organization’s website to engage customers. As the real-time transcription is trending in the market, key players are offering customized languages and programming interface options for content transcription to augment the growth of the market. Transcription is used to automate closed subtitling and captioning, to transcribe customer service calls and to produce metadata for media assets to create fully searchable documentation.

Further, content transcription with emerging technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence enhance speech-to-text which is expected to boost the market growth. Subsequently, speech analytics is used to focus on the compliance team to monitor the high risk or low-quality calls in order to reduce risk and decrease the compliance costs. Although, this type of API is widely adopted to improve the organizations’ operational performance and call deflection to reduce average handle time, transfers, and first call resolution. The API solution is adopted majorly to enhance the performance of an organization by detecting fraud and risk with the help of advanced speech and text analytics. For example, in 2018, Google LLC reported that around 27.0% of smartphone consumers use voice searching facilities on mobile phones. With this increasing adoption of online users towards voice search expected to showcase a moderate growth rate. Other applications such as speech diarization, route optimization, and many more offered by speech-to-text solution are estimated to contribute to market growth. 

By Industry Analysis

Healthcare Industry to Showcase the Highest CAGR during the Forecasting Period

Based on industry, the market is classified as BFSI, IT & telecom, healthcare, retail, and consumer goods, media & entertainment, and others.

While dealing with a huge amount of transaction data every day, banking and financial institutes register complaints, resolve queries, and collect feedback from customers. As most of the customers today prefer to talk with an operator rather than type their questions or navigate through different screens and menus, speech-to-text converters play a vital role in analyzing the customer’s feedback. Further, voice searching technology augments the customer care management for trending e-commerce platform, which is also expected to increase the adoption of this system in the upcoming period.

Another industry where voice technology is expected to play a major role is in education. The availability of the internet at an affordable price encourages many education institutes to adopt digital voice assistants for learning purposes. Physically disabled people can learn interactively with the use of voice and speech-to-text technology. Hence, education is set to become one of the emerging adoption areas in the upcoming period. 

IT & telecom industries also seem to be adopting voice technologies to automate and enhance customer experience through speech recognition, analytics, and reporting.

Apart from this, the healthcare industry is developing with the adoption of a variety of voice-enabled applications from medical diagnostic to clinical documentation. Key players are investing to develop voice technology applications for the healthcare industry. Hence, the healthcare industry is expected to hold the highest share of the market. For instance, In September 2019, Google LLC, along with Amazon collaborated for the development of virtual health assistants. This virtual health assistant automatically facilitates the tracking of the performance of medical staff in a dashboard as well as offers patients’ engagement using speech-to-text conversion technology., As electronic health record (EHR) system has become popular in the medical industry. EHR system is a totally computerized medical history recording system. These APIs are helping for updating a patient's real-time data by enabling voice input, which can automatically record the medical history in the form of text.

Key players are focused on the continuous development of clinical speech recognition solutions. Integration of speech recognition with electronic health record systems is trending in the industry. Industry developments are highlighting towards the growth of the adoption of voice enabled systems into the medical sector. In December 2019, the Transcribe medical speech recognition service was launched by Amazon for clinicians to convert patient and clinician speech-into-text.

Similarly, the retail industry is also showcasing an average growth rate for the adoption of speech-to-text software to enhance customer experience and reduce risk and compliance. Speech-to-text and text-to-voice also work on entertainment websites, gaming consoles, and apps, which increases the demand for the product in the entertainment and media industry. Other industries such as the government and defense are expected to experience moderate growth in the upcoming period.

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

Geographically, the global speech-to-text API market is segmented across five major regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. They are further categorized into countries.

The present global nerve about speech technology and its applications over the industries have resonated in North America. The conventional self-service market has reached a strong degree of saturation in the region in the main industry verticals, with wide opportunities for the development of voice technology. This is particularly valid in large enterprises, which has become the biggest consumer of voice-assisted solutions. With businesses adopting customer-centric solutions, large enterprises in the region are heavily using interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which have provided a positive boost to the market growth in the region. Additionally, vendors in the region are creating successful migration pathways for consumers of current touch-tone systems as they transition into the next-generation speech-enabled IVR devices. Developed countries in the region such as the U.S. and Canada have been at the forefront in adopting advanced technologies. In addition to this, the increasing adoption of voice-enabled applications in smartphones and the growing penetration of voice technology in the banking and electronics sector are expected to bolster the market growth during the forecast period.

Apart from this, the presence of leading technology suppliers such as Microsoft Corporation, Google LLC, and many more dominate the European market. Continuous growth in the adoption of smart speakers across the European countries such as the U.K., Germany, and France is expected to contribute in the market growth. Although, growing investment for the development of voice technology in the region is expected to boost the European market growth. With an inclining approach towards the adoption of emerging technologies, Asia-Pacific is likely to showcase an adequate growth rate in the forecasting period. The Middle East and Africa are anticipated to hold the highest CAGR in the forthcoming period.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Key Players Are Developing New Products with Advanced Technologies

Several companies such as Google LLC are continuously focusing to develop new API solutions with emerging technologies. As real-time streaming and efficient audio transcription are trending in the market, the company is achieving it by integrating APIs with advanced deep learning algorithms of artificial neural network. The deep neural network efficiently converts streaming or pre-recorded voice into text with more accuracy and in real-time. Such advancement of the product portfolio is expected to boost the adoption of such APIs by developers.

• In June, 2018, Google LLC. announced the launch of its electronic health record system. The system is empowered by integrating AI features into the voice recognition software.  

Key Players Focus on Enhancing Product Efficiency

Key players in this market are focusing on extending business opportunities by enhancing their customized product portfolio with advanced technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more. Strategic partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions are carried out by market players for expanding business and product portfolio. For instance, in August 2019, Cisco System, Inc. collaborated with Voice Company to automate the process of generating real-time transcripts which unlock the value kept in voice communications by integrating voice transcription capability into Cisco’s Webex platform. Developments also enable different emerging applications such as voice-based speech analytics through artificial intelligence, which is anticipated to propel market growth in the upcoming period.

List of Key Companies Profiled:

• Amazon Web Services, Inc.


• Google LLC


• IBM Corporation


• Microsoft Corporation


• Nuance Communications, Inc.


• Rev.com, Inc.


• Speechmatics


• Verint Systems, Inc.


• Vocapia Research SAS,


• VoiceBase, Inc.

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• March 2020 – IBM Corporation updated its speech-to-text recognition service which supports activity tracking for all the operations of asynchronous HTTP interface and also supports speaker labels for Korean and German language models.


• September 2019 – Rev.com, Inc. developed speech-to-text API which offers the facility to software developers to directly access the speech recognition model. The developed model builds speech recognition through user application.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

In addition, cost competitiveness and product offering with more features, vendors continue to expand their performance/price ratio and hence offer market-driven opportunities for the future.

REPORT COVERAGE

The report offers qualitative and quantitative insights on speech-to-text API software and the detailed analysis of market size & growth rate for all possible segments in the market.  Along with this, the report provides an elaborative analysis of market dynamics, emerging trends, and competitive landscape.

Key insights provided in the report are the adoption trends of speech-to-text API by individual segments, recent industry developments such as mergers & acquisitions, consolidated SWOT analysis of key players, partnerships, Porter’s five forces analysis, and business strategies of leading market players, key industry trends, macro, and micro-economic indicators.

Report Scope and Segmentation

ATTRIBUTE	DETAILS
Study Period	2016-2027
Base Year	2019
Forecast Period	2020-2027
Historical Period	2016-2019
Unit	Value (USD million)
By Component	Software Services
By Deployment	On-Premise Cloud
By Application	Contact Center and Customer Management Transcription Fraud Detection Compliance Management Voice Search Others (Route Optimization, Speech Diarization etc.)
By Industry	BFSI IT and Telecom Healthcare Retail and Consumer Goods Education Media & Entertainment Others (Government, Construction, and Defense)
By Region	North America (the U.S. and Canada) Europe (the U.K., Germany, France, Scandinavia, and Rest of Europe) Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and Rest of Asia Pacific) Middle East & Africa (South Africa, GCC and Rest of the Middle East & Africa) Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America)