Parks Associates announced new research showing 22% of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a voice-controlled smart speaker with personal assistant in 2017. Consumer interest in voice innovations continues to grow as the voice-first ecosystem expands into new categories, products, and interactions. The international research firm will explore this key IoT market trend when it hosts the 12th-annual CONNECTIONS Summit: IoT and the Smart Home on January 9 at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

CONNECTIONS Summit features multiple sessions that examine strategies to drive mass-market adoption of smart home products and solutions. Topics include partnership opportunities, the impact of voice on the user experience, and advances in AI and data analytics. CONNECTIONS Summit sponsors include Homematic IP, Vivint Smart Home, Brilliant, Carrier, Chamberlain Group, Cirrent, Deutsche Telekom, Greenwave Systems, Hive, Intel, iQor, LUX Products, mnubo, NXP, Plasmatic Technologies, Prodea, ROC-Connect, and Zigbee Alliance.

"It's still early days for the voice-first market, but rapid early adoption of products like smart speakers with personal assistants, at 12% of U.S. broadband households by year-end 2016, demonstrates the need and demand for a natural and easy-to-use interface," said Dina Abdelrazik, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Natural language processing for voice technologies happen in the cloud, so real-time updates can be made quickly once consumer realities unfold. Multiple channels, from custom to direct-to-consumer retail, will focus on expanding the voice-enabled UX in 2018."

Abdelrazik will moderate the session "Voice Control: Improving the Smart Home Experience" at 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday, January 9. This session explores the potential for voice as the primary user interface for the smart home and the data and intelligence needed to improve the consumer experience. Joining Abdelrazik on the panel are the following speakers:

• Aaron Emigh, CEO & Co-founder, Brilliant, Inc.

• Jim Hunter, Chief Scientist & Technology Evangelist, Greenwave Systems, Inc.

• Miles Kingston, GM, Smart Home Group, Intel Corp.

• Todd Mozer, CEO, Sensory

• Nana Murugesan, VP & GM, Services & New Business, Samsung Electronics America

• Mark Spates, Product Lead for Smart Home, Google

"As voice computing becomes more capable and useful, consumers naturally want it throughout their home," said Aaron Emigh, CEO, Brilliant. "In the near future, voice computing will be built right into the walls of the house."

"Sensory is seeing the demand for smart speakers explode," said Todd Mozer, CEO, Sensory. "Our customer base has more than doubled in the last year primarily driven by smart speakers all over the world."