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How voice AI will impact the drone industry

Updated: Jan 13, 2023

Drones are getting more advanced every day – we already have self-flying drones that can help you with transport, photography, and surveillance. But now, the next generation of drone technology is here: It is voice-activated. Yes, these new drones get controlled by nothing other than your voice.



Drone flying in the sunset


If you want to send your drone up 20 feet, tell the drone what you want it to do, and it will carry out your commands effortlessly. No need to worry about GPS tracking or other complicated technical mechanisms. Your unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will carry out your command without fail.


With this in mind, voice AI can improve business operations by making our lives easier and more efficient. It will also help provide more accurate data for companies to make better decisions.


How Voice Technology Works

For the device to understand what the user is saying, it breaks the spoken words down into bits and then converts them into text. It then uses pre-programmed or learned speech patterns and previously-collected data to interpret the text and generates a response by reversing the conversion process. This same concept is used for speech-to-text software and conversational AI, like Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, or Apple’s Siri.


Then, the device analyzes that digital information to either find the answer to the user’s question or execute the action to follow the user’s command.


The drone industry is only starting to see the enormous benefits and opportunities that voice technology can offer. Whether it’s people with mobility issues, militaries, journalists, or just general drone users, the impact that voice AI can have is unprecedented. Using automation in the distribution of labor saves valuable time and concentration. Voice-controlled drones increase productivity and advance data collection at a rate previously unattainable with only people.


Voice AI Impact on Drone Industry

Here are 14 ways in which voice AI will impact the drone industry.


1. Quick Routine Inspection

Using voice AI to control drones will make routine inspections easier to complete. It will allow companies to complete simple inspections without manually controlling a drone – saving you time and money. You can easily fly a drone around an entire building in less than 30 minutes, checking for any damages or defects in the property.


2. Voice Activated Drones Can Create Better, More Accurate Data

The first thing we can expect from voice technology is that it will improve the quality of data you receive. To do this, companies will use voice-activated, hands-free drones for surveillance, inspections, and even geo-tagging.


Voice AI will allow drones to create accurate and detailed information about your environments, allowing companies to develop more accurate data for better decision-making.


3. Voice Activated Drones Can Make a Company’s Staff More Efficient

Staffing is one of the biggest expenses for most companies, whether hiring or training new employees or keeping current employees happy. Voice AI can change all this – allowing companies to manage their employees more effectively.


You could use voice AI to employ fewer people or make them work smarter. For example, you could use voice AI for security purposes. Security guards station at specific locations with a particular purpose. However, with this drone technology, you can have your guards patrol a bigger location and check in at certain times.


4. Providing Information to Emergency Response Systems

You could use drones in an emergency response system. For example, if a building catches fire, the drones can use their advanced imaging software to detect the fire and immediately send out an alert. It is just one of many applications that drones will use once voice AI technology gets integrated.


5. Increasing Workplace Productivity

Voice technology will significantly reduce the time required to complete a job when executed correctly. Not only that, but it will also increase the quality of work produced. Voice AI can help you complete more complex tasks, automate tasks, and even turn routine tasks into a fun game.


6. Advances in Research

Investigative journalists, topographers, and the police are just some of those who can benefit greatly from voice-controlled drones. Many places are vast and difficult to traverse, either for safety, time, or just accessibility.


Voice-controlled drones offer a unique approach to previously unchartered territories. People can remain safe and productive in other ways while drones can gather extensive data far quicker and more efficiently than human teams.


7. Faster Diagnosis and Treatment

A recent study showed how voice control drones could help doctors diagnose even the most difficult diseases. Physicians can successfully identify specific symptoms and diseases using the “Helping Hand” gesture.


Performing operations is not a fun thing for us. But, with voice-activated drones around us all the time, we’ll be able to perform them faster and more accurately, decreasing operating time.


8. Simpler, Faster Experiences

The most obvious way voice AI can change the drone industry is by making it easier to control our drones. We no longer have to spend time manually controlling the drone, we can give it a voice command, and it will take off.


At present, most drone owners will have unique commands that they give to their drones. There’s an entire subreddit dedicated to helping amateur drone pilots come up with their commands.


9. Control Your Equipment With Your Voice

Imagine controlling your drone with your smartphone – it’s not just a dream. That convenience will easily make our everyday lives more relaxed and hassle-free.


Take drone footage, for example. The drone will continuously track the owner’s voice and never deviate from that pathway to ensure the footage is always focused. It can work for camera shots as well. It may be good for viewfinders in drones because it would make them easier to use. One can also apply to other industries, such as home electronics.


10. Higher-Quality Service

Voice AI will likely make drone services much more responsive because drones can carry out orders immediately without needing technical insight.


Consumers can contact a company about something, and then the service provider can connect to the closest drone and send it off straight away to gather the necessary data.


11. Easy and Reliable

One of the most significant benefits of voice technology is that it is 100% reliable – unlike GPS, there is no chance of losing connection or getting confused with your commands.


All you have to do is make a simple command, for example, “take a picture” or “fly to here,” and then watch how your drone does what you want. You don’t need to be a pro drone pilot in the future – all you need to do is speak.


12. Increased Automation

One of the biggest trends in the drone industry is automation. Some drones have automated flight modes and will follow a preset route before returning home automatically. Voice AI will help with this automation even more because it can allow your drone to do whatever you want without user input.


13. Quicker and More Efficient Transport

As we’ve already noted, voice AI will likely make drone deliveries much more efficient. The good news is that it will also make them more affordable for consumers. For example, self-driving vehicles get tested in California.


In the next few years, self-driving cars will take over the roads, and you can also transfer this technology to drones. Drones will still need human input but no longer require a pilot.


14. Harder to Hack

When a drone gets hacked, it can cause chaos – especially if the drone is flying near airports or overpopulated areas. The threat of drones being hacked is even greater as they become more advanced. A hacker can use the hacking software to access the drone and fly it wherever they want.


Even worse, the hacker has complete control of your drone, and they can drop projectiles on whoever they want. A hacker can also control your drone, fly it into buildings, and drop explosives on people.


This threat isn’t going away anytime soon, but voice AI could be the key to stopping hackers from accessing your drone by eliminating the need for a regular password, making it much harder for hackers to hack your drone.


Next Step in UAV Development

There are cities worldwide looking for solutions to solve traffic congestion involving UAVs, including Urban Air Mobility (UAM). With UAM, automated aircraft would use the current lower altitude infrastructure and airspace used by helicopters and other aviation in urban and suburban areas to transport passengers and cargo.


While the physical structures, like vertiplaces and vertiports, would need to be designed and constructed, the UAV technology for aerial travel within cities does exist, and the market is suspected of growing significantly by 2030.




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