Merging and synchronizing corporate and personal voice agents: Comparison of voice agents acting as a secretary and a housekeeper

People are currently facing a one-to-multiple mode of interaction with voice agents (VAs), which are widely used in their personal and working lives separately owing to the rapid development of artificial intelligence. To explore potential trends in the use of VAs, we designed a merged VA and two either familiar (interconnected) or strange (completely independent) VAs, of which one acted as a secretary for work-related issues and the other acted as a housekeeper for personal issues. Seventy-two people participated in a within-group experiment to experience simulated interactions and complete tasks using the designed VAs in a random order. Objective and subjective evaluation data were collected to analyse user experience. The results show that the merged VA performs best and that participants also preferred it over the others based on the collected data on mental workload, performance, satisfaction, and perceived usefulness. The familiar VAs were the second best-performing VAs. Though there were no significant differences in the trust in the three designed VAs, participants held positive and cautious attitudes towards VAs in general. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of efficiency, the value of entertainment, and the distinction between work and personal life with respect to the personal and corporate functions of VAs.