Multi-Agent Voice Assistants: An Investigation of User Experience

The use of voice assistants (VAs) is spreading widely. Most common VAs consist of a single, usually female voice that responds to the user's inquiry. We designed a VA system appearing as a group of agents, each with a different voice and a specialized task domain. We conducted a quantitative user study comparing our multi-agent approach with a conventional single-agent assistant in a smart home scenario as virtual reality (VR) simulation. The results show significantly higher user experience ratings for the multi-agent concept. Based on our findings, we discuss the potentials and challenges of designing multi-party VA systems.