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AWS today announced that Alexa for Business will be made available for the makers of third-party hardware using the Alexa Voice Service Device SDK.
New devices that can be used to get work done with Alexa for Business are also in the works.
“We are working with popular brands like Plantronics, iHome, and BlackBerry, and solution providers like Linkplay and Extron to bring delightful and productive Alexa experiences to organizations,” AWS general manager Collin Davis said in a blog post.
Since the introduction of the Alexa Voice Service, Alexa has been introduced for a wide range of devices from speakers made by Sonos, JBL, and Polk, as well as thermostats, refrigerators, and televisions.
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On Monday, Qualcomm agreed to create a chip to enable more headphone makers to incorporate Alexa into their devices.
Alexa for Business allows enterprise customers to schedule meeting rooms, create voice apps especially for company employees, and allow company administrators to control their settings and capabilities.
Alexa for Business was first introduced a year ago at AWS re:Invent along with software partners like Concur, ServiceNow, and Salesforce and conference call providers like Vonage and Zoom.
Though the launch video shown below includes several images of the Echo Show and Echo Spot in offices, Alexa for Business was initially only available for Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot speakers. News today will not extend Alexa for Business to be made available for the Alexa app, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.
Beyond environments like an office or the desk of a remote worker, Alexa for Business is being used to manage Echo speakers in places like hotels and dorm rooms.
The news follows the introduction of the Room Booking API for developers making voices apps for Alexa for Business earlier this month.
In other recent AWS news, the Polly service for developers to use Alexa’s speech recognition and voice command intelligence in their own products was made available for Alexa skills developers today alongside more than a dozen synthesized voice options.
Additional Alexa for Business news and perhaps support for visual experiences with the Echo Show or Echo Spot is expected to be announced next month at AWS re:Invent.
