With hundreds of millions of Alexa-enabled devices sold, there’s no doubt—consumers love Alexa in their homes, in their cars, and on their mobile devices. However, delivering engaging, voice-first experiences to customers at any time and place throughout their day means extending outside a consumer’s personal devices. That’s why we see growing momentum in new and exciting areas, too, including Alexa solutions for various industries.
Let’s explore some of the opportunities for leveraging Alexa in businesses, then see how one prominent Las Vegas resort scored big by delivering customized, contact-less voice experiences to its guests.
Who would have imagined, after more than a year of pandemic-induced working from home, we might be ready to head back into the office? As we move closer to that point (and each other), the lessons of 2020 emphasize the need for infrastructure that allows us to interact with each other via hands-free conferencing and meeting rooms. COVID-19 aside, Gartner had already predicted 40% of formal meetings would be facilitated by virtual AI and advanced analytics by 2020.
With Alexa for Business integrated into Zoom Rooms Appliances, companies of any size can leverage Alexa’s workplace and home office capabilities to increase productivity and improve the meeting room and video call experience—all while creating a touch-free office environment. Setting up Alexa for Business and administering the devices is quick and straightforward via the Zoom Room portal, whether for a single room, a floor, a whole building, or an entire corporate campus.
By linking Alexa for Business to the organization’s calendaring system, Alexa can find available meeting rooms, create, send and modify calendar events, and remind attendees of upcoming meetings. Meeting organizers and attendees need only to use their voices to book an available room, start their meeting, or join a scheduled meeting. Meetings are instantly more productive and engaging experiences without touching (and sanitizing) screens or fighting to get various technologies to work together correctly.
People in the office aren’t the only ones who can benefit from Alexa for Business. Some companies seek to provide residential services throughout entire communities or buildings, such as apartment complexes. Enter Alexa for Residential. Alexa for Residential enables these companies to deploy and manage Alexa-enabled devices and experiences across residential buildings with the help of solution providers. Through Alexa for Residential, you can provide voice-enabled smart home experiences to your residents from the moment they move in. Residential property owners and property management companies can make their properties more attractive to residents with just a one-time investment and setup.
Alexa-enabled devices can be standard fixtures provided as part of each unit, just like other home appliances. With these devices, residents can instantly control the lights, thermostats, smoke detectors, locks, blinds, and more, with no setup required on their part. Further, Alexa and Echo devices are designed with multiple layers of privacy protection, from microphone and camera controls to the ability to view and delete your voice recordings. Property staff, management, and smart home providers do not have access to Alexa voice recordings.
If home users, business users, and community residents love Alexa experiences, why not make them part of the business trip or vacation experience, too? Alexa for Hospitality provides device fleet management so you can build immersive voice-first experiences that delight your hotel guests—customized Alexa capabilities that scale to hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds-of-thousands of devices.
Alexa for Hospitality simplifies tasks like playing music, checking the weather, calling the front desk, ordering room service, controlling in-room temperature or lighting—even checking out with just a few words. Providing such intuitive experiences can be a crucial differentiator that draws more guests, increases revenues, reduces costs, and improves guest satisfaction.
Want to know more about how Alexa can help you build voice solutions that increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences? Register now for Alexa Live to join the Alexa community of developers, device makers, business leaders, startups, and industry experts on July 21. We will have a special track on Alexa for Industry Solutions. Join us!