Amazon’s Alexa, the cloud-based virtual assistant, now has over a 1,000 skills under its belt.
Since the launch of the Alexa Skills Kit less than a year ago, the Seattle-based company has been making strides in working with the developer community to build out Alexa’s skill set. In June last year, Amazon even rolled out a $100 million fund to support developers, manufacturers and startups of all sizes who were keen to develop voice-based experiences on its new platform.
“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,” said Rob Pulciani, director of Amazon Alexa.
The rapid growth of Alexa’s skill set comes alongside the company’s continued effort to improve the adoption of Alexa’s Smart Home Skill API, which essentially allows developers to build skills that let a user direct Alexa to run household chores for them.
“No experience with speech recognition or natural language understanding is required. Amazon does all the work to hear, understand and process the customer’s spoken request so a developer doesn’t have to,” the company said.
Some examples include asking Alexa to turn off lights, order detergent and turn the lawn sprinkler on and off, among others. In a press release, the company highlighted its new partnerships with top brands, such as Capital One, Domino’s, Fitbit, KAYAK and Uber.
“We’re excited about the 1,000 skills that are already available and can’t wait to see what developers create with the next 10,000,” Pulciani added.
Recently, the company also partnered with PYMNTS.com to launch the PYMNTS Alexa Challenge to reimagine the delivery of financial services and payments. The competition saw development of prototypes by FinTech players, including Discover, Visa and Western Union.
