““When it’s time to fill up at the gas station, you can now put away your credit card or cash and say, ‘Hey Google, pay for gas’, on Android Auto or from your Android phone. Select your pump number and complete contactless payment with Google Pay,” Google says .  At launch, the service will be available at Exxon and Mobil, Conoco, Phillips 66 and 76 fuel stations.”

“Consumers with Alexa, Amazon.com Inc.’s voice assistant, enabled in their cars and trucks soon will be able to pay for fuel at more than 11,500 Exxon and Mobil gas stations from inside their vehicles. Announced Monday, the service, compatible with vehicles with Alexa built in or enabled with an Echo Auto or other Alexa-enabled device, means consumers will be able to use Amazon Pay and the default payment information stored in it to pay for fuel. Payment processor Fiserv Inc. will provide technology to enable the service. Some Audi, Ford, Lincoln, Lexus, and Toyota models work with Alexa natively or with an app.”

“The new Discover skill for Alexa offers customers a convenient and hands-free way to access account information, including their recent transactions, available credit, current balance, rewards category information and payment due date. Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that powers Alexa-enabled devices, like Amazon Echo, Echo Show, and Echo Dot, provides customers access to skills, capabilities similar to apps, but for voice. Discover customers who have linked their account to Alexa can access the new Discover skill by simply saying “Alexa, open Discover.””

“For the days that leaving your house to get snacks and supplies is just too unfathomable, there’s 7-Eleven delivery . Now, for the days when looking at a screen is equally as taxing, there’s 7-Eleven voice ordering. The company has launched 7Voice for Amazon Alexa and Google Home, which means that as long as you have the 7Now app and an account login, you can order all the stuff you want simply by asking, and it’ll be delivered to you in less than 30 minutes.”

“Get ready to say: “Hey Google. How much do I have in my bank account?” NatWest is to begin voice-only banking that will give customers direct access to their accounts by talking to the Google Home smart speakers now in millions of British homes. The trial – the first by a UK high street bank – will let customers ask Google “What’s my balance?”, “What’s my latest transactions?” and “What’s my pending transactions”. Google devices will answer verbally, and also flash the answers up on the customer’s smartphone.”

“Airlines are concerned that Amazon’s quiet launch of domestic plane ticket sales in India last month is only the start of a global trend and the beginning of a battle for control of valuable traveller data. For years, airlines have found it difficult to compete with online travel agencies like Expedia Group Inc and corporate travel agents that control a large number of customers, Travelport Chief Executive Gordon Wilson said. “They have nothing left if Google is in that position, or Amazon,” he said at a CAPA Centre for Aviation conference this month. “I think the airlines are being very watchful over this.””

“Cardholders looking for memorable experiences while holidaying or want a special encounter closer to home can now access experiences through Mastercard’s Alexa-enabled or Google smart speaker, as well as through Priceless.com. The voice assistant will be available later this summer. Cardholders will be able to hear about a wide variety of experiences available in cities. These include New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago. The process is extremely simple; users access experiences by asking their speaker to “Open Priceless Experiences.” Smart speaker owners will know the skill has activated thanks to the immediate chime of the Mastercard sonic melody.”

“On Tuesday, Gautheir said Amazon Pay’s latest research had found that roughly 40% of consumers think smart assistants would be used in some part of their shopping journey over the next three years. To be sure, the data recognizes that consumers could use their voice at any point on the path to purchase, not just for the transaction itself. Amazon Pay said over 10,000 consumers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India and Japan were contacted in the double-blind survey.”

“A year after Amazon opened up in-skill purchasing to all Alexa developers in the U.S., the company is launching the service internationally. Initially, the capability will roll out to developers in the U.K., Germany and Japan, and then developers elsewhere in the world. With in-skill purchasing, developers are able to generate revenue from voice apps in a number of ways: through the sale of digital goods as a one-time purchase, subscriptions, or consumables.”

“On Tuesday, Alibaba announced at the annual Shanghai Auto Show that it’s developing apps for connected cars that will let drivers find restaurants, queue up and make reservations at restaurants, order food and eventually complete a plethora of other tasks using voice, motion or touch control. Third-party developers are invited to make their in-car apps, which will run on Alibaba’s operating system AliOS.”

“Erica, the AI-driven digital banking chatbot from Bank of America, has surpassed six million users, according to a press release. The bank said that more than 35 million requests have been processed through the virtual assistant since its debut in 2018.”

“Voice assistants continue to gain momentum, but there’s still little clarity around how this new interface affects the brand-consumer relationship, and how brands need to reposition themselves in light of this. With strong chances of more growth on the horizon, stakeholders in voice tech are having to consider questions that underline its durability and monetisation potential – writes Olivia Valentine, Insights Analyst at GlobalWebIndex. Above all, they’re grappling with the need to commercialise voice assistants, and solidify the role they’re playing across the purchase journey .”

“Amazon on Wednesday said that the number of voice-activated orders placed via its virtual personal assistant Alexa were three times greater during the 2018 holiday season than they were in the last year. Meanwhile, Alexa was also called on “hundreds of thousands” of times to help folks find cocktail recipes: eggnog and Moscow Mules topped the list of most-requested drinks during the holidays.”

“Voice assistants are potentially privacy nightmares as they proceed to monitor more and more elements of our daily lives. That fear, however, hasn’t seemed to put a dent in sales. As the holiday shopping season approaches, voice-powered smart speakers are again expected to be big sellers, adding to the approximately one-quarter to one-third of the U.S. population that already owns a smart speaker and uses a voice assistant at least once a month.”

“Westpac is enabling Siri for its users to manage their accounts and transactions from iPhone devices, claiming to be the first in the country. To authenticate payments, customers will be prompted to input their fingerprint or face ID before the money is transferred to the payee.”

“Catalogue retailer Argos has launched a “voice shopping” service to let people reserve products in a local store using a Google Home smart speaker. It is the first retailer in the UK to offer a shopping service via the Google Assistant platform.”

“Exactly how long it will take for retailers to fully leverage conversational technologies is up for debate. But the first steps involve gaining better knowledge of the technology and understanding how customers react to its capabilities.”

“We’ve learned a lot about how we can better serve people’s needs with voice, helping them save time and get things done. Here are a few things we’ve learned since we introduced the Google Assistant nearly two years ago.”