Amazon lets Alexa’s skills be customized for individual businesses

Amazon adds Alexa for Business blueprints. Image: Amazon via AFP Relaxnews

To assist organizations of all sizes with their individual needs, Amazon launched a series of business-oriented Alexa Blueprints this Thursday which let companies using Alexa for Business create custom responses for their own voice assistants.

These “private skills” are completely unique to each individual organization and can be requested by any employee by filling out one of the dozens of provided Blueprints available on the Alexa Skill Blueprints site. Any request made is sent to information technology (IT) administrators at their respective companies who then review propositions and program the enterprise’s Alexa to respond in particular ways, no coding necessary.

Examples of business blueprints that Alexa can be programmed to respond to include, “What’s the guest Wi-Fi password?” or “What are the hours for IT?” and “When does open enrollment start?” Only devices registered on an enterprise’s Alexa for Business account will receive the custom, IT-enabled responses.

The two new Skill Blueprints categories that these skills can be found under on the website are “Business Q&A” and “Onboard Guide,” which have to do with answering basic questions about the business (“Where is…”) and about the onboarding process (“How do I…”). Anyone with access to an Amazon account who has the organization’s Alexa for Business identifier can suggest new skills for Alexa that IT can then consider.

Alexa Skill Blueprints originally launched last year with blueprints available mostly for at-home settings. Now, organizations, too, can benefit from an Alexa with custom skills. CE/JB

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