Alexa skills are hot right now, and one of the many reasons is that “Voice is not only the future; it’s now” as reported in this article in Entrepreneur Magazine.
Adapt your mobile application for Alexa
A common scope of work is adapting your existing mobile application for use with Alexa. Most mobile applications have an existing back end that does much of the heavy lifting. Adapting this to an API is very cost effective in reducing the costs associated with developing voice-first technologies to your existing platform.
Invocations, (remember the 90s?)
Invocations are the words spoken to launch an Alexa Skill. These phrases are unique to each skill and cannot be re-used once assigned, much like web domains.
Some folks may be too young to recall, but for those of you old enough to remember the 90s, there was a mad dash to “reserve your domain”. Well, another mad dash, not as widely reported as of yet, is underway. That dash is to get your voice first experience registered on the Amazon Alexa platform. Getting your skill built early on improves your odds that the invocation you want for your business will be available when you try to get it.
Hey FOMO, the bandwagon is here. Get on it!
“Nearly half of U.S. homes will have a smart speaker by year’s end, Adobe says”. Do you really want you business missing out on these marketing and customer support opportunities? This is the time to get in on the action and increase your customer base and improve your customer satisfaction.
What is Alexa?
from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Alexa
Amazon Alexa, known simply as Alexa,[2] is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news.[3] Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing “skills” (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps such as weather programs and audio features).
Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android) require the user to push a button to activate Alexa’s listening mode. Currently, interaction and communication with Alexa are only available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish,[4] and Japanese. In November 2017, Alexa became available in the Canadian market in English only.[5]
As of September 2017, Amazon had more than 5,000 employees working on Alexa and related products.[6]