With an aim to go toe-to-toe with Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant Alexa, Google has announced that it would put its “Assistant” on partner speakers, appliances and connected cameras. Citing the announcement made at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) industry show that kicked-off in Berlin on Wednesday, Tech Crunch reported that the move is likely to be good for both the voice-powered assistant market as well as for Google’s ability to use its service to collect useful data which it can then use to work on its advertising and marketing products.
“The more places ‘Assistant’ appears, the more likely it is that people will engage with the voice companion and that’s not territory Google wants to cede to someone like Amazon,” the report said. The devices that would get “Assistant” include the Anker Zolo Mojo, a small cylinder speaker that’s like a third-party Google Home, which will go on sale in late October.
Two other smart speakers powered by “Assistant” are Panasonic GA10 and the TicHome Mini. Google is also now making it possible to use “Assistant” to check on the state of your laundry or dishes, using an integration with LG’s line of home appliances.