Hands off: Russians have recognized the benefits of voice control

      October 3, 2025 11:55

      Society

      Touch control of modern gadgets is still popular, but interacting with devices by voice is also rapidly gaining momentum. This trend goes beyond the smart home—Russians want to talk to their smartphones, speakers and even cars.

      For example, a study by Auto.ru and Yandex Auto showed that more than 60% of drivers would prefer to control the car by voice rather than via a touchscreen. The reasons for this trend are clear—simplicity and convenience of contactless control methods are especially relevant when in a moving vehicle.

      At the same time, AI voices are also improving. The modern sound of robots is becoming almost indistinguishable from that of real people. This opens up new opportunities for the development of smart gadgets, content creation in education and many other areas. The emergence of AI with human-like cognitive abilities may be possible within the next 5–10 years, but the current level of robots already allows them to successfully handle a range of everyday tasks.

      Today voice assistants are available to almost everyone—mainly in the form of smart speakers. Even the simplest models with a virtual assistant can answer questions on various topics, provide weather updates, play music according to the owner’s preferences and entertain children. At the same time, the spread of AI technologies has made smart speakers familiar digital companions in Russian homes rather than an innovative device.

      “Over the past few years voice assistants have come a long way—from conversationalists with limited functionality to real virtual personalities with their own unique characters, ready to help with hundreds of requests. Artificial intelligence technologies are developing rapidly, and we at T2 are doing everything to integrate the best of them into our products and services—from protecting subscribers against cyberthreats to smart-managing internal business processes and distributing network load using AI,” says Alexey Sidorov, director of the T2 Volga macroregion.

      This fall subscribers of mobile operator T2 can purchase smart gadgets at attractive prices. Promotional prices for Sber smart speakers are in effect at T2 salons nationwide until October 31. For example, the Sber Home device can be bought for just 5,990 rubles, and the Sber Mini 2 for 2,990 rubles. Both speakers have the built-in voice assistant Salut and run on the StarOS operating system.

      The smart purchase becomes even more advantageous with T2’s gigabytes-and-minutes exchange promotion. Buyers can receive a discount of up to 1,000 rubles when exchanging at least 500 minutes and 30 GB. You can turn leftover traffic into savings on the operator’s website or in a T2 subscriber’s personal account. There you can find information about all available discounts and devices available for purchase under the operator’s promotion.

      Photo by: Ekaterina Mavricheva

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