Amazon Alexa can handle everything from connecting to conference calls to managing schedules to configuring device security. This ebook looks at what Alexa can do and focuses on ways business professionals can get the maximum benefits from this digital assistant.

From the ebook:

First came the computer. Then the network emerged, allowing multiple devices in the same location to share information. From there the internet evolved, giving humanity the ability to store, sort, and find information with nothing but a typed request.

All signs point to digital assistants being the next revolution in computing. iPhones have Siri, Google has Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and Amazon has Alexa, and all of them can get you results with nothing but a voice command.

However, Alexa has dominated the digital assistant space in the past few years, quickly becoming a household name. Amazon has established an early foothold in the war for digital assistant supremacy, but for those who don’t use Alexa or one of its competitors, there’s still the question of what exactly they are.

Executive summary

• What is Amazon Alexa? Alexa is Amazon’s digital assistant, first launched in 2014 along with the Amazon Echo smart speaker. Alexa can provide results for web searches, order products from Amazon, and act as a hub for compatible IoT devices, all via voice commands.
• When was Amazon Alexa released? Amazon Alexa has been available to the general public since 2015. Amazon recently made Alexa’s API available to developers, allowing for integration in non-Amazon devices.
• Does Amazon Alexa compromise user privacy? Alexa’s always-on microphone can be a privacy concern, and rightfully so. The truth is much simpler, however: Alexa isn’t transmitting any audio until it hears its wake word, and everything sent to Amazon can be viewed in the Alexa app.