Amazon's Lex framework just got easier for developers (AMZN)

Number of Alexa Skills

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Amazon on Thursday unveiled the ability to seamlessly export a bot created with its Lex framework into the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). This means a chatbot built on Lex can now be turned into an Alexa skill for use on any of the Alexa-enabled devices. The new functionality is likely a play by Amazon to simplify Alexa skill development to further advance the platform.

By making it easier for developers to create skills for Alexa, Amazon may advance the speed at which these skills are developed. Amazon’s Alexa had surpassed 20,000 skills (voice apps) in the US as of August 30, up from 15,000 skills two months prior.

As the race to build the most intelligent assistant heats up, streamlining the Alexa skill development process bodes well for Amazon’s long-term success:

There will be more voice- and chat-enabled apps. Developers leveraging the Lex bot framework can publish their conversational-enabled apps for mobile and IoT devices as stand-alone web applications, or for chat services like Facebook Messenger, Slack, or Twilio. With the update, any bot previously created via Lex can now be exported as an Alexa skill.
Adoption of Amazon's Alexa could grow. With skills becoming increasingly easier to integrate, Alexa may gain a stronger footing in the market. That's because, the more voice app skills out there, the more useful the voice platform can potentially be for consumers. And more skills across a wider variety of tasks can make a system like Alexa more appealing than rival voice platforms.
It will likely narrow the competition with rival voice assistants. Amazon’s closest rivals, Google and Apple, each wield massive reach via their operating systems — the two accounted for roughly 99% of smartphones shipped in Q4 2016 — giving them a major competitive advantage for adoption, as consumers can easily access Google’s and Apple’s respective voice assistants on their smartphones. By making skills easier to integrate and more available, Amazon may be able to extend Alexa's reach.

Amazon has been working extensively to simplify the Alexa skill development process. On Tuesday, Amazon rolled out a public beta of its Skills Management AP, the Alexa Skills Command-Line Protocol, and Events to the ASK to aid developers in building, testing, and launching Alexa skills. As voice becomes an increasingly important tool for how consumers engage with devices — by 2020, the voice assistant device base is expected to grow to more than 7 billion — it will be crucial for Amazon to ensure Alexa is as useful as possible in order to pull ahead of competition in the voice-activated ecosystem.

Advancements in a bevy of industries are helping intelligent digital voice assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa become more sophisticated and useful pieces of technology.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are allowing them to accurately understand more information, while upgrades to mobile networks are facilitating quick transfers of data to robust clouds, enabling fast response times. In addition, the swell of internet connected devices like smart thermostats and speakers is giving voice assistants more utility in a connected consumer's life.

However, there are still numerous barriers that need to be overcome before this product platform will see mass adoption, as both technological challenges and societal hurdles persist.

Jessica Smith, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the voice assistant landscape that:

Identifies the major changes in technology and user behavior that have created the voice assistant market that exists today.
Presents the major players in today's market and discusses their major weaknesses and strengths.
Explores the impact this nascent market poses to other key digital industries.
Identifies the major hurdles that need to be overcome before intelligent voice assistants will see mass adoption.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. » Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

Join the conversation about this story »