Amazon's Alexa could become more "proactive."
The virtual assistant - which is designed by tech giant Amazon and carries out tasks for users such as ordering groceries, playing music and operating electrics in the home - could be set to take on even more "mundane" tasks .
Amazon boss Dave Limp said in a statement: "A key target for Amazon is to free up people’s time by having the smart assistant take on more mundane task. If you shut off your lights ten days in a row then you go on vacation and forget to shut off your lights then it will do it for you – it might ask you first: ‘I have a hunch’, but after a while it’ll just do it. So it’s these kinds of proactive things that make it more delightful over time and more intelligent and when that starts happening it starts feeling more magical too."
The tech boss went on to explain that the aim for Amazon is now to expand upon the "transactional" nature upon which their flagship assistant was built.
He said: "When we think about where does Alexa need to be smarter, what was being asked in the home changed – how people were consuming goods changed. But you don’t necessarily want to always do transactional, you’d like it to be working on your behalf, and to be intelligent in an ambient fashion. It goes beyond that, because people are habitual in many ways and you can personalise the experience for them and do things on their behalf."
Limp also claimed that 25% of tasks carried out by Alexa are done "in the background" without the user even having to ask.
He added: "The farthest we are along is with the smart home domain where now more than one in four – greater than 25% – of the things that Alexa does for the smart home is done without the customer saying a single word, it’s done in the background. think Alexa has become and will continue to be more conversational, less transactional.
There are lots of other places where I think Alexa can be proactive on your behalf, and every time that Alexa can automate what might be a mundane task for you is just a better world that we’re living in as we have more time to pursue what that other thing is that could be more important on your list."
