Digital Assistants in Healthcare 2020-2025: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Has Emerged as a Major Boon Amid COVID-19 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Digital Assistants in Healthcare Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2020-2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Global Digital Assistants in the Healthcare Market is projected to register a CAGR of almost 33.7%, over the forecast period.

The critical factor liable for driving market growth is the growing requirement for automation, the number of users with smart devices is increasing at an increasing rate, which is further anticipated to boost the expansion of digital assistants in the healthcare market worldwide.

Currently, large-scale healthcare organizations are also implementing intelligent virtual assistants since they help eliminate the infrastructure setup cost. Hence, the cost-effectiveness of digital assistants is the critical factor that drives its rapid adoption, which in turn supports the global intelligent virtual assistant market growth.

Developments in the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) ha led to an increased number of functionalities that a digital assistant can offer from right from acting as a receptionist or a virtual nurse giving answers to simple medical queries to becoming an emotional support companion. Advanced functionalities such as these are leading to higher market growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put tremendous strain on the healthcare sector globally. With no established treatment, an exponential rise in cases, limited resources, and vulnerability of the medical staff of catching the virus, the industry has found itself struggling to deal with the crises. In this scenario, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a boon. The technology can help in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively.

For instance, in Singapore, the National University Health System (NUHS) and Bot MD have partnered to launch the NUHS-Bot MD AI clinical assistant app for frontline medical staff to gain quick access to hospital-specific information, including COVID-19 guidelines and operational directives. The NUHS-Bot MD AI assistant is a chatbot that immediately answers questions from hospital staff about protocols, instructions, drug dosage information, drug formulary, and on-call rosters. Hence the industry will witness substantial growth opportunities even post-pandemic.

Key Market Trends

Smart Speakers to Witness Significant Growth

• The growth of smart speakers is majorly due to changing consumer preferences towards technologically advanced products which makes use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)and the Internet of things (IoT) as they offer many benefits such as multifunctional nature, less time consuming, increased comfort, convenience, and accuracy.
• For instance, In 2019, Unified Physician Management rolled out a voice-enabled digital assistant, Suki, that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help doctors with medical charting during patient visits. In May 2020, Suki announced a Series B funding round of $20 million, led by new investor Flare Capital Partners and including top investors like First Round and Venrock.
• In July 2019, Amazon and the UK Government announced Alexa devices would use the NHS website to provide information to users seeking health advice. Using NHS data will help to give users confidence that the information they receive is from a reliable source. Indeed, in this case, the ability of the technology to select such details as a default option is beneficial.
• Although users increasingly rely on them as part of their daily routines, the devices' constant monitoring of people's most intimate environments can seem intrusive. Media articles around the world have raised concerns about the devices supposedly listening to private conversations and sharing recordings. The assistants may record snippets of audio from homes, potentially enabling companies to gather whole new types of data for analysis. Data security threats such as above may hinder the growth of the market.

North America Expected to Hold Significant Market Share

• An increase in the chronic disease population, an increase in the aging population, and the demand for home-based monitoring devices are all the major factors driving the growth of the digital assistant in the healthcare market. Operating home-based devices is becoming dull, and hence these are being used by all age groups. They are also compact and portable, and the patients can carry it all the time without unease. It also ensures that the patient's condition is monitored all the time. Moreover, the need to maintain the average healthcare expenditure is also one of the significant reasons for driving the growth of the market.
• According to the United States Bureau data, the number of Americans aged 65 years and above is projected to become more than double (from 46 million in 2016 to over 98 million by 2060), and the 65-and-older age group's share of the total population is likely to rise to nearly 24% from 15%. The growing geriatric population is more prone to diseases, which increases the usage of digital assistant devices in the region.
• Furthermore, the growing investments by companies in developing improved digital assistant technology with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning to support automated decision-making systems are expected to fuel the market across North America during the forecast period.
• However, government policies surrounding the protection of consumer data to restrict the misuse of the same may hinder the market growth as companies must comply with the regulations set out by the government and incorporate changes immediately.

Competitive Landscape

The digital assistants in the healthcare market are moderately fragmented, as changing consumer demands are pushing companies to innovate in the space to attract more consumers. The competition in this market has intensified over the years, with companies launching a multitude of products to attract consumers. Recent industry developments:

• In April 2020, Nuance Communications, Inc. announced the launch of Nuance Mix, an open enterprise-grade, software-as-a-service (SaaS) tooling suite for creating advanced conversational experiences that Power Virtual Assistants (VA) and IVR using Nuance's industry-leading and cloud-agnostic Conversational AI.
• March 2020, Digital health company Babylon has launched a new care assistant that is designed to help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service provides information and cares for patients according to their needs, allocating doctors' time to the patients who need it most. Patients can check their symptoms, track their illness, chat with trained staff, and consult doctors, with the tool also hoped to help people cope with self-isolation.

Key Topics Covered

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Assumptions and Market Definition

1.2 Scope of the Study

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Industry Value Chain Analysis

4.3 Industry Attractiveness - Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.4 Market Drivers

4.4.1 Growing Smartphone Users and Increasing Use of Healthcare Applications

4.4.2 Rising Prevalence of Chronic Disorders

4.5 Market Restraints

4.5.1 Lack of Structured Data in the Healthcare Industry

4.5.2 Concerns Regarding Data Privacy

4.6 Assessment of Impact of COVID-19 on the Industry

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 Product

5.1.1 Smart Speakers

5.1.2 Chatbots

5.2 User Interface

5.2.1 Automatic Speech Recognition

5.2.2 Text-based

5.2.3 Text-to-speech

5.3 Application

5.3.1 Patient Tracking

5.3.2 Medical Reference

5.3.3 Diagnostic Guides

5.3.4 Drug Dosage

5.3.5 Medical Calculators

5.3.6 Nursing Reference

5.3.7 Others

5.4 End User

5.4.1 Healthcare Providers

5.4.2 Healthcare Payers

5.4.3 Patients

5.4.4 Other End Users

5.5 Geography

5.5.1 North America

5.5.2 Europe

5.5.3 Asia Pacific

5.5.4 Latin America

5.5.5 Middle East and Africa

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles

6.1.1 Amazon.com Inc.

6.1.2 Microsoft Corporation

6.1.3 Verint Systems Inc.

6.1.4 ADA Digital Health

6.1.5 Nuance Communications, Inc.

6.1.6 Sensely, Inc.

6.1.7 eGain Corporation

6.1.8 Infermedica Sp. z o.o

6.1.9 CSS Corporation Pvt. Ltd.

6.1.10 Babylon Healthcare Services Limited

6.1.11 Healthtap, Inc.

6.1.12 Medrespond LLC

6.1.13 True Image Interactive, Inc.

6.1.14 Floatbot.AI

6.1.15 Kore.AI, Inc.

7 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

8 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

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