Amazon’s Echo devices and its Alexa voice assistant platform have been gaining quite a bit of popularity as of late, so it makes sense that Amazon wants to expand Alexa’s presence as much as possible. According to a report from Recode, it seems that some potential platforms include intercom-like devices, as well as the ability to help make phone calls.
Right now Alexa is capable of many, many things as evidenced by Amazon announcing that Alexa now has over 10,000 skills, so it is clear that Amazon wants to take things even further. The alleged devices have been in beta testing over at Amazon for the past month or so, although unsurprisingly Amazon has declined to comment on it or to confirm their existence.
We’re not sure how exactly these new Alexa-powered devices will work, but it could find a place in homes or offices where intercoms are used, thus providing a “smarter” way to communicate.
We also recently heard that Amazon was prepping a commercial version of Alexa where it would be able to respond to customer enquiries, so instead of talking to a chatbot which can be inefficient as you’d have to type your questions, or a human in which sometimes you might be placed in a queue, Alexa as a customer service tool could help reduce those wait times. Recode claims that Amazon is expected to announce these new devices in the coming months, so until then take it with a grain of salt.
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