On November 6, 2014, Amazon announced that it will launch the Echo smart speaker. The voice assistant in the speaker is called Alexa. In stark contrast to Jeff Bezos's launch event for the Fire Phone, Amazon did not create momentum for Echo. The conference only invited Amazon members, and simply told everyone that such a product exists and will be on sale.
But Echo speaks for himself – not that voice assistants will advertise for themselves. It was quickly discovered that this cylindrical product, which is only a high-quality product, is a very novel consumer electronics device and is excited about it.
Amazon sold all its consumers in July 2015 and became a hot item. Although Amazon has never been willing to disclose the sales of its products, third-party data shows that Echo's market share has surpassed that of Bose, Logitech, Sonos and other speaker manufacturers. The voice assistant Alexa is also used on Tap, Dot, Fire TV boxes, Fire tablets, and gradually pushed to non-Amazon devices.
Alexa's success has allowed Amazon to compete with Apple, Google and Microsoft. Alexa can set up a thermostat called Uber, which also benefits from collaboration with various developers.
To gain insight into Amazon's two years of Echo and Alexa, Fast Company interviewed Echo and Alexa's product director, Amazon's 18-year veteran Toni Reid, and Rohit Prasad, chief scientist for Amazon's artificial intelligence.
| Functional improvements based on user needs
The Echo and Alexa projects began in 2011, much earlier than Amazon began to announce. The initial goals of these two projects are also high.
Prasad said, "Alexa's design is inspired by the computer in Star Trek." In other words, Amazon hopes to create a computing interface in the field of artificial intelligence. Google is doing the same thing. From this point of view, the challenges that Amazon faces are enough to make them toss for several years.
Amazon also wants to focus on some of the products that can be implemented. "You will hear that our workflow is going backwards. After we release a news about the upcoming new product, our process is backwards," Reid said.
As part of the reverse process analysis, Amazon believes that Echo needs a voice assistant feature, but can't have a screen, completely different from Siri and Xiaona. Prasad said: "This design determines that we have no retreat and can only face difficulties."
In many ways, Echo and Alexa have made Amazon more than others in machine learning and other artificial intelligence technologies, such as recommended products and offers. “A computer with voice support needs more work than you think,†Prasad said.
Amazon started with machine learning, allowing Alexa to identify the wake-up words from another room (Alexa by default) in the same room filled with conversations, which is much harder than developing Siri. .
This is why an Echo can automatically block all words in any noisy environment, except for the reason for the awakening of the word Alexa.
In the development of functions, Amazon's judgment is also very simple and decisive. “We started thinking about the usage scenarios, and under what circumstances users would use it, music was ranked first,†Reid said.
“At first, you can only get it through Amazon's own music library. It's very limited. Users will get more music resources from other places,†Reid said. “We didn't realize that this situation existed until user feedback. Say, we want Pandora, we want SpoTIfy, we need more music providers to provide services, so we started to find ways to make up for these needs."
Another feature added later is Amazon's audiobook, Audible. “Users think Amazon should have this service, but we don’t, users have a lot of demands on this issue,†Reid recalls. “After they bought our speakers, we told us that I want to listen to my own through this stereo. Audiobooks."
Amazon handles the usage scenarios that users want to implement through Alexa. This is also the beginning of the Echo supply is very limited, only the invited talent can buy. “We feel that we should now conduct testing services for a small number of users who will give us feedback and gradually improve the user experience. This has proven to be very useful. We have a group of users who are willing to provide high quality feedback.â€
In this way, Amazon found that the original user was very interested in controlling all the smart home items in the home through Alexa. But Amazon did not use this usage scenario as the first goal to be solved. It was not until two years later that Alexa had an API interface that allowed other smart home items to be accessed. And this is where other tech giants are looking for breakthroughs, including Apple.
"From a user's point of view, the function of smart home is really a surprise," Reid said. "They think this feature is very advanced. Black technology has gradually become mainstream. I think Alexa is one of them and provides users with a Convenience."
Some third-party companies that want to use Alexa Voice Assistant can also develop on their own needs through Amazon's underlying machine learning and other technology platforms. But they need to face the problem of how to implement their own products only by means of voice. The challenges brought by the interface design will make these companies plan to do so sooner or later.
"When you chat with developers, you will hear them say 'How to connect Alexa to our graphical user interface application is a challenge for me,'" Prasad said. "I don't think We are deliberately trying these developers, but I think Alexa's implementation is very popular, and it will be a big change."
| Shopping with "Can't see items"
From the point of view of realizing, Amazon's long-term goal is not only to sell hardware products with Alexa voice assistant, but to hope that users can use Alexa to make it easier for users to shop from Amazon. The more people use Alexa, Amazon's business will be better. “From a business perspective, we are developing a product that wants to bring a flywheel effect, like Amazon Music and Amazon Audio Reader, and if they use these features on Echo, they will be more willing to pay.â€
The way Amazon uses Alexa to cash out is: draining Amazon's shopping site. Shopping by voice alone will make users accustomed to making choices from products that were previously purchased at Amazon. This is also the original intention of Alexa's research and development. “This is a seamless experience that will be on the line soon.â€
When someone wants to buy something they haven't done before, it becomes a tricky problem, especially when the consumer doesn't know the specific name of the item to buy, they are likely to be reluctant to talk to Alexa for about 20 minutes, then Then narrow down their choices.
“I bought Roomba through Alexa, but you can't tell him to buy a blue shirt. The word is too general, there is no price to refer to, and no brand can refer to it,†Prasad said.
Amazon is still trying to make it more valuable through just voice shopping. In the long run, this is completely different from the traditional way of shopping, and perhaps more personal. Prasad said, “In India, every time you go to the same mall to shop, you will be the same salesperson to guide you according to your shopping habits. This is the relationship we want users to establish with Alex. This trust relationship is very important. But this is not just a technical issue."
| Personalized Alexa
In Star Trek, the computer is characterized by personality, which is related to the actors who voiced him. Amazon has been trying to make Alexa more personal before announcing the voice assistant feature in Echo. In fact, Amazon has done a little bit. When users use Alexa, they feel that Alexa is very user-friendly. Alexa will aggregate forecasts based on user needs. For example, more than 13,000 users have asked Alexa. Who will vote for this election instead of asking who they should vote for? In Amazon's opinion, this is a sign that Alexa can provide personalized service.
“Big data allows you to get more information, but what consumers need to know is what is important to him.†Reid said, “A British user responded that Alexa can’t sing a birthday song. Not happy, but it has this function in the United States."
Users may be interested in fun answers and music, but Alexa's next generation hopes that without such automated responses, it will be more personal and more realistic with human interaction. This kind of problem is not a company that can be solved by one's own efforts. So in September of this year, Amazon launched the Amazon Awards, which once a year, with a bonus of $2.5 million, encourages college students to design robots that they can communicate with.
Prasad said, "The purpose of this competition is to promote the development of voice interaction technology, and to engage in longer conversations instead of simple instructions, which is where we hope to break through."
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