What Happened
Voice control is coming soon to more smart home devices as Amazon adds Smart Home Skill API to Alexa Skills Kit. This will make it easier for makers of smart home gadgets to integrate Amazon’s voice assistant with their products, allowing users to control those devices remotely via voice command. For now, Amazon’s API is limited to thermostats, lights, switches, and plugs. Last week, Alphabet-owned Nest integrated Alexa into its smart thermometers to allow users to adjust the temperature without lifting a finger.
What Brands Need To Do
According to BI Intelligence estimates, connected-home device shipments will grow at a massive compound annual rate of 67% over the next five years and hit 1.8 billion units shipped in 2019. As the availability of smart home devices rapidly grows, they provide a valuable emerging platform for brands to connect with consumers at home. As Amazon and the developer community continue to build out Alexa’s capabilities and make it more brand-friendly, brands would be smart to get on board with those devices via integrations or partnerships.
For more information on how brands can develop authentic brand voices and navigate the new rules of discovery, check out the Conversational Interfaces section in our Outlook 2016.
Source: ZDNet
