Following ongoing experiences that Amazon’s generative AI makeover of Alexa is just not going effectively, it seems Amazon might take a extra sensible method to creating its sensible assistant extra helpful. Based on Enterprise Insider, Amazon is partnering with a number of firms to make Alexa higher at doing issues you may want a digital assistant to do: together with calling an Uber, tackling Ticketmaster for occasions, reserving dinner via OpenTable, and dealing with GrubHub and Instacart on your meals supply.
Amazon desires to make the brand new Alexa able to finishing a whole job for a person relatively than handing it off to a 3rd get together, because it largely does with Abilities. BI experiences that these accomplice firms would turn out to be the “main possibility for dealing with these particular duties on the upgraded Alexa.” So, for instance, if you ask Alexa to order that pizza you bought final week from that place you want, it may probably hyperlink into your GrubHub account and order you a pepperoni and pineapple, saving you many minutes of fiddling together with your telephone.
Based on BI, the partnerships aren’t remaining. Actually, an Amazon spokesperson informed the publication that any product growth course of options concepts that “don’t essentially replicate what the expertise might be once we roll it out for our prospects.”
The method is an fascinating antidote to the generative-AI hype round voice assistants. There’s no have to reinvent the wheel right here, simply make the wheel higher. Whereas the report didn’t embrace technical particulars, if Amazon is partnering with firms, it could be to leverage a way more tried-and-true answer than generative AI: APIs.
As a substitute of unleashing an LLM-powered assistant on a service or web site and telling it to execute a job for you (a mannequin that firms like Rabbit and Humane AI have tried with restricted success), Amazon may simply use a wiser, extra conversational Alexa to make the clunky command and management construction of API calls extra seamless. Whereas technically a lot much less formidable, if it makes for a smoother expertise ordering your pizza by way of voice than with the present Alexa Abilities course of, that’s an enchancment all spherical.
The draw back is that if Amazon depends on partnerships to offer this performance, your native pizza place might not be on that listing. (Mine solely simply obtained on-line ordering, and it is spotty at finest.) Based on BI’s supply, Amazon expects to have round 200 companions by Q3 subsequent 12 months. Relying on who these companions are, this method of “let’s ensure this truly works” relatively than “right here’s a chatbot that may attempt to add pinecones to your pizza” seems like a greater answer.
