When we talk about virtual voice assistants, the two names that immediately come to mind are Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. While Google dominates the Android smartphone segment with its data-driven assistant, Alexa has carved out a niche of its own in the new smart speaker segment. However, Huawei could soon join the race.
This is expected due to strong signs suggesting that the next voice assistant will be from the Chinese firm and will arrive shortly, in order to gain a foothold in this competitive market.
Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Electronics, was quoted by CNBC in an exclusive interview. He had this to say: "At first, we are mainly using Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for your AI Cube and your smartphones." He also mentioned: “We need more time to develop our artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence) services. Later we will expand this outside of China.
Huawei already has a China-centric voice assistant called XiaoYi, not to be confused with Xiaomi's similar name Xiao AI. The world's number two brand also recently introduced the Huawei AI Cube, which is the company's first AI smart speaker. Yu stated that until their voice assistant is ready for prime time, they will continue to use Google and Amazon offerings on their global products. (Find out more: Amazon Alexa Vs Google Assistant, duel of assistants on Android).
Despite the executive's statement, much about the voice assistant remains unknown. There is no information on what languages it will support on its debut, nor on the timing of its introduction, or even what it will be called outside of China. However, it seems that the growing popularity of voice assistants has attracted the attention of the Chinese giant and it wants a piece of the pie.
(Source)