Amazon will now offer third-party businesses the unprecedented privilege of accessing the core artificial intelligence that supports the Alexa digital assistant, a first for AI’s platform.
While Amazon has allowed them to build skills for Alexa and integrate virtually any consumer electronic device manufacturer Alexa into a compatible product, the e-commerce giant has not licensed the underlying AI technology for use in other assistant-like products. Amazon calls the new offering Alexa Custom Assistant, and it starts focusing on the auto market.
Amazon is doing this to allow not only car manufacturers but also every business with a need for a digital voice assistant more control over the software experience. This will enable companies to create their own keywords and personal voices and capabilities that Amazon says ‘will coexist’ with Alexa as it is designed to work today. For the auto market, it offers Amazon the advantage of having the software built directly into cars.
Building an intelligent assistant is complex, time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, the pace of innovation and change is accelerating and assistants are always being improved and smarter, which requires significant ongoing investments, ”the company explains in a blog post. “The Alexa Custom Assistant addresses this challenge by enabling businesses to leverage Alexa’s world-class technology stack to create their own intelligent assistant without the investment, long development cycles and resources to build and maintain it from scratch. keep.”
Amazon says businesses will have access to custom passwords that use “the same modern process” used to develop Alexa’s new passwords. Companies can create their own unique voices for the assistants with the help of Amazon ‘voice experts’ who will help the survey process and the machine learning-based algorithms to expand the voice library.
The in-car screens and software experiences are a ripe market for companies like Amazon, Apple and Google. But only the latter two technology giants have their own mobile operating systems that enable plug-in platforms like Apple’s CarPlay and Google Android Auto. Amazon entered into several deals with carmakers earlier this week, most recently with Lamborghini and the launch of Rivian electric vehicles at CES 2021, for direct Alexa integrations, and Amazon’s Echo Auto platform can be accessed via a mobile app or through ‘ a dongle you put in vehicle. But it’s not quite as seamless as the competition offered by Apple and Google.
Just as Amazon strategically worked the downside on mobile phones, where Siri and Google Assistant rule, to portray a dominant position in the smart home, it’s now trying to better position Alexa as a built-in solution in environments that require perhaps not at all a phone that circumvents the need to compete directly with Apple and Google.
The first company to agree to build its own Alexa-based assistant is automaker Fiat Chrysler (FCA), which has had an ongoing relationship with Amazon to incorporate some of its technologies, such as Amazon Fire TV-powered screens, into its to integrate cars. Financial terms of any arrangement between Amazon and FCA have not been disclosed, and it is not clear whether Amazon is asking automakers to license the AI technology, rather than to release it freely.
Either way, Amazon also says that its intentions are to give all businesses, not just car manufacturers, a faster, cheaper, and less complex way to build their own tailor-made voting experiences, rather than simply maintain an integration with a third party. service.
Alexa Custom Assistant also lets the AI’s AI products stay in control and dictate information about special features, while Alexa can handle more common app-related requests such as music playback and directions. For example, if a customer asks Alexa to scroll down a car window or how to fix a device, the request will be sent to the trademark assistant. If a customer asks the brand assistant to play an audiobook, the request will be sent to Alexa, ”reads the blog.
Amazon says Alexa Custom Assistant will be available from today for companies in the US and Canada, as well as in Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Spain.
Update January 15, 08:46 ET: Added additional information about Alexa Custom Assistant and how it is available to more than just car manufacturers.