Amazon has ambitious plans to earn from virtual assistant Alexa

Amazon is working with brands across sectors to enable them to build skills on its Alexa platform. From daily news updates to smart-home integrations, banking services, food ordering and cab hailing, Alexa has been equipped with more than 10,000 skills, as the service expands in India.

Alexa is no longer only adept at playing music. It is capable of facilitating transactions, too. For instance: IndusInd Bank has launched voice-based banking services through its AI-based Alexa Skill, ‘IndusAssist’, that enables customers to conduct financial and non-financial banking transactions on Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices using voice commands. This requires a one-time registration.

“Amazon’s primary objective is to build a voice platform for curated knowledge — in the form of skills. These skills can be for generic consumer questions or could be custom-created by brands,” informs Saurabh Uboweja, CEO, Brands of Desire, a management consulting firm. In the future, monetisation for Alexa will largely depend on voice advertising in the form of branded answers, in-skill purchases of premium content and products on its marketplace, he adds.

Amazon India