Consumers everywhere have jumped to embrace the arrival of smart speakers in the current landscape. It seems like everywhere you go; someone is talking to Alexa or Google. Now, there’s a growing demand for that very same simplicity and functionality in the business world too. Late last year, Amazon.com made another major push to bring the Alexa digital assistant into the workforce, launching a brand-new skill for the virtual service.
The new skill, which can be downloaded as an app for Alexa tools, allows users to ask questions about important data in spreadsheets without writing code. The Alexa offers doesn’t even ask users to call for a specific skill by name, which makes accessing data in the business landscape easier than ever.
Knowledge Skills for Alexa
The “Knowledge Skills” offering for Alexa allows organisations using Alexa for Hospitality or Business to add spreadsheets into their devices. You simply upload the spreadsheets that you need, containing a vast selection of important business data, and Alexa helps you out with the info you need. For instance, you could upload building data, employee information, product catalogs, and more. That data can then be made accessible to all employees via Alexa devices.
The biggest benefit of this new offering is that employees then have the option to ask questions about the data available to them by simply speaking to Alexa. Once you upload your information to your Alexa app, your spreadsheet data will be mapped onto templates that relate to certain use cases, such as how-to tasks and events.
Already, customers in the Alexa Business and Hospitality community are taking advantage of the Knowledge Skills experience. For instance, Saint Louis University and BayCare Health System have both deployed Knowledge Skills to gain answers to common questions from students and hospital visitors.
Customising Alexa for Business
According to the System Director for Innovation at BayCare Health, Alexa Knowledge Skills is giving the business an opportunity to customise the experience across the health landscape without the need for excessive coding and in-depth development processes. The BayCare Health company has seen massive potential in the application at 15 hospitals, as well as various Health Hubs and outpatient services. The tools can deliver answers to customers and team members in real-time through Alexa.
Amazon has been looking for new ways to bring Alexa to the business space since the Alexa for Business service launched. This was followed by the Alexa Skills program designed for brands and businesses, and the new Business category in the Alexa for Business Blueprints site. The new Knowledge Skills offering is a huge step in the right direction for Amazon’s business customers.
