Amazon Alexa Continues to Get Smarter: Over 1,000 Third-Party Skills Now Available
Developers are reaching new audiences by using the Alexa Skills Kit to build skills for Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that powers millions of Alexa-enabled devices, including Amazon Echo
Skills for Alexa include Capital One, Domino's, Fitbit, KAYAK, PGA Tour, Samsung SmartThings, Uber, Big Ass Solutions and Nutritionix
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 3, 2016-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon today announced that developers have now released over 1,000 skills for Alexa, the cloud-based virtual assistant behind Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Tap, and other Alexa-enabled devices. With every new skill, Alexa gets smarter, giving developers a new way to delight their customers with voice-enabled experiences.
Creating an Alexa skill is easy and fast. Developers can use the Smart Home Skill API within the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to easily extend smart home capabilities for Alexa. They can also create custom skills with ASK by designing their voice UI and simply building cloud-hosted code that interacts with Alexa cloud-based APIs to process customer requests. Alexa does the work to hear, understand, and resolve the customer's spoken request, and then maps the service call to the developer's endpoint.
Less than a year ago we released the Alexa Skills Kit, making it possible for any developer to create voice experiences for Alexa, said Rob Pulciani, Director, Amazon Alexa. Today, we have a vibrant community of tens of thousands of developers who are learning about the service, bringing useful and innovative skills to every aspect of Alexa customers' lives, and introducing their own users to the magic and simplicity of hands-free, voice-driven interactions. We're excited about the 1,000 skills that are already available, and can't wait to see what developers create with the next ten thousand.
Here's what developers are saying about building skills for Alexa:
Capital One is using ASK to give its customers voice access to banking information. At Capital One, we're continually exploring new ways to harness technology to help our customers confidently and securely manage their money, wherever they are, said Ken Dodelin, Vice President of Digital Product Management, Capital One. Through the Alexa Skills Kit open APIs and developer tools, we were able to easily give our customers direct voice access to their accounts so they could hear how much money they have in their accounts, make credit card payments and stay on top of recent account changes. Voice helps make the interaction more accessible and intuitive, and provides us with a new way to engage existing and new customers.
Domino's, a pizza delivery company, is using ASK to give customers a hands-free way to order and track their pizza. We've been thrilled with our experience building a skill for Alexa, which brings Domino's ordering capabilities and pizza tracking to our customers with a simple voice command. The tools Amazon provided to us as developers made the process straightforward and intuitive, said Kelly Garcia, Vice President of E-Commerce and Development at Domino's.
Fitbit, the leader in the connected health and fitness categories, is leveraging ASK to provide users with voice access to their health and fitness stats. The integration between Fitbit and Alexa gives our customers a new and fun way to stay on top of their health and fitness objectives, said Tim Roberts, Executive Vice President, Interactive at Fitbit. Leveraging the open APIs offered through the Alexa Skills Kit, we created the Fitbit skill to give our users hands-free access to their data within seconds. By creating an easy way to find out their step count or how they slept last night, users can know if they're on track with their goals - all without needing to check your tracker or Fitbit app.
KAYAK, the world's leading travel search engine, is using ASK to give customers a way to access their travel details with their voice. The KAYAK skill for Alexa has already delivered strong user insights that emphasize the power and potential of voice-enabled travel search. We are moving quickly to build on it, said Matthias Keller, Chief Scientist, KAYAK. The development process was seamless and enabled us to take our work with natural language processing to the next level.
SmartThings, an open platform for the smart home, is using ASK and the Smart Home Skill API to offer customers voice-activated control of their home. Offering customers the ability to control devices connected to the Samsung SmartThings platform with their voice was a natural next step, said Brett Worthington, General Manager for Americas and Vice President of Global Business Development, SmartThings. The Alexa Smart Home Skill API made it simple and easy for us to write, test, and deploy a Skill. Bringing this increased functionality to our open platform makes it even easier for our users to create customizable solutions that solve real problems.
Uber, a global transportation network company, is leveraging ASK to easily let customers order a ride without using a device. The integration of Uber with Alexa has taken simplicity to a new level for our customers and development team, said Matt Wyndowe, Head of Product Partnerships at Uber. We had the idea to give our customers the option to order an Uber with their voice and the Alexa Skills Kit made it easy with open, cloud-based APIs that worked seamlessly with our Uber API.
Haiku Home by Big Ass Solutions is leveraging ASK to give their customers voice control over their home fans. Bringing together Haiku Home by Big Ass Solutions and Alexa was a natural fit, said Landon Borders, Director of Connected Devices at Big Ass Solutions. We launched integration between Ha
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Amazon Alexa Continues to Get Smarter: Over 1,000 Third-Party Skills Now Available 
