Through items like the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, or Amazon Fire TV, you can now tell Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa to purchase a huge number of Amazon items. So Alexa owners can say “Alexa, order new Charmin toilet paper” or “Alexa, order me AAA batteries“.
To purchase things, simply say “yes“.
Before today, Alexa was just able to reorder already ordered things or Amazon’s Choice items and the little Echo Dot. Right now, Alexa’s product ordering is constrained to Amazon Prime clients.
Amazon’s Virtual Assistant Can Order Products on Amazon for You
The personal assistant can’t arrange clothing, shoes, gems, watches, Amazon Fresh, Prime Pantry, Prime Now, or Add-On things. An Amazon representative told:
There are a few constraints around things that require estimating like clothes and shoes. But it’s still day one and we’ll be including more things constantly
The previous weeks have been extremely occupied in the world of voice-activated virtual assistants. Google reported its Echo rival Google Home, which is expected out later this year, and Apple released SiriKit for iOS. In the mean time, VentureBeat reported that a future Apple TV will be updated to compete the Echo. It is not yet clear whether Apple TV or Google Home will allow people to request things off of Amazon.
Though its rollout has been progressive since it hit the market two years back, Alexa appears to have become important for the future of the major online retailer. Weeks ago Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said Amazon Echo could end up being the fourth pillar of the organization, alongside Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services, and its retail marketplace.
Alexa’s new purchasing choice comes days after Amazon Echo and Amazon Tap users learned they can include more than 1,400 abilities by saying “Alexa, enable.” (Soon Citibank account holders may even be able to pay bills with Alexa, as indicated by a report from Fortune. CapitalOne was added to Alexa in March.) Amazon released the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) for developers a year back.
