Innovation

Back in early January this year there were several TV and radio announcements about the UK’s most popular Christmas present given in 2017 – the Amazon Echo or Amazon Dot. Whilst Google hoped their Home Pod would be a strong contender against such a rival, they were left swiftly chasing Amazon’s tail in the race to reach the number one spot. Now it’s not like any of these products had just come to market so why were they so popular? Well, thanks to the ever increasing realm of smart technology and IoT, it has now created a “supply and demand” scenario for Alexa controlled devices where so many things can now be voice activated.

It was announced in the third quarter of 2017 that ‘tens of millions’ of Alexa units had managed to have been sold by the tech giant. This number exceeded the expectations of several analysts, and they were then further stunned as revelations of the fourth quarter(announced on February 1st 2018), confirmed that not only are the number of users of Echo devices increasing exponentially, but that in the whole burgeoning market of voice-enabled virtual assistants, Amazon is leading with 70 to 76 percent of the total market share. In any case, Amazon are constantly and consistently launching a range of devices with amazing features and affordability options. To top it off Amazon created a third party open platform for creating third-party Alexa ‘Skills’, making Echo devices more prominent and common than anyone could have predicted. Here at Dotsquares, we understand that these turn of events around AI, Voice command and IoT mean great opportunities for businesses that are looking for better ways to connect with their users. The increasing prominence of Alexa-enabled devices also means better smart home and workplace solutions, which inadvertently will result in improved productivity and increased efficiency.With a desire to streamline business processes for our clients, our in-house developers have been trained to create highly interactive Alexa skills with all the necessary components, to get it passed through the certification process. If you are looking to improve your business productivity whilst also enhancing your user experience, we will be able make that vision a reality. In fact we are in the process of finalising our own Alexa skill so that you can ask Alexa directly to request an estimate. To do this you will simply need to enable the free ‘Dotsquares’ skill on your echo device and then use any of these commands “Alexa, ask Dotsquares”,”Alexa, launch Dotsquares.”, or”Ask Dotsquares to request an estimate”.