This could eliminate the issue of activating the wrong device, and it could reduce distractions when receiving Alexa’s feedback.Īlexa for Business also has the potential to be a valuable asset for remote workers and distributed businesses. The Echo Frames smart glasses and Echo Buds are both capable of activating Alexa using touch or hand gestures instead of voice activation. It could also be considered impolite and disruptive to be talking with Alexa and getting audio feedback in an open environment, since it could distract your neighbors.Ī potential workaround for utilizing Alexa in an open office setting would incorporate the use of Amazon’s Alexa-powered wearable devices. The Alexa-on-every-desk strategy won’t work in that environment because one wake-word could set off a ton of devices at once. The biggest challenge with Amazon’s vision is that so many companies have been moving to open concept workspaces. SEE: Alexa for Business likely to win in smart office, leverage AWS, Echo, developers and consumers (ZDNet) But above all, Amazon is envisioning an Echo device on every desk so that employees can use their voice to streamline basic business functions and multitask. If you watch the company’s promo video for Alexa for Business, you can see that the company is not just proposing Echo devices in the conference room, but also in hallways and public spaces throughout corporate buildings. However, Amazon’s ambitions for the service are a lot bigger than that. That would be enough for a lot of enterprises to adopt Alexa for Business. If Alexa for Business can pull off the scenario where an employee walks into a meeting room and simply says, “Alexa, connect to my 2:00pm conference call” and it just works, then it would be a big win in many organizations. Image: Amazon How can Alexa for Business transform the workplace?Ĭonnecting to video conferences or online meetings and getting PowerPoints to work in conference rooms are still touch-and-go, even though IT has been trying to streamline them for decades. Enrollment works both ways, too: Users who’ve signed up can access Alexa for Business skills from home as long as they have an Alexa-capable device. There are also user enrollment tools for employees to sign up to work with the company’s shared Alexa devices, and there’s the opportunity for an employee to carry over their personal Alexa skills and preferences–to play their Spotify playlists at their desk, for example. SEE: How to become an Alexa developer: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic) It also has enterprise deployment tools that allow IT to set up hundreds or thousands of shared devices without having to manually configure each one. It has an enterprise-level security and manageability model. Some of the solutions that work with Alexa for Business include:īut, Amazon doesn’t just offer companies the ability to place a bunch of Alexa devices around the office. Notify facilities about a problem with the building.Provide directions to a conference room.Some of the things that Alexa for Business is capable of doing via voice control include: SEE: More TechRepublic cheat sheets and smart person’s guides What is Alexa for Business?Īfter leading a breakthrough in consumer adoption of voice control interfaces, on NovemAmazon announced that it was integrating the Echo platform into the office with the launch of Alexa for Business. “If voice is the natural interface for dealing with things in your home, why not do it at work,” said Amazon CTO Werner Vogels in announcing Alexa for Business at the 2017 AWS re:Invent conference. It’s made it easier for people to set timers in the kitchen, turn on lights throughout the house, play their favorite songs and order household supplies–without ever touching a mouse, a phone or a physical switch or button. The Amazon Echo has brought the Alexa voice assistant to over 20 million homes around the world. Amazon’s Alexa for Business service aims to give your conference rooms and your desk a much better interface for connecting to meetings, calendars, tasks, and company data.
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