Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV provides a set of built-in abilities that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. Examples of these skills include the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm or timer, and more. With the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), you can easily build your own skills for Alexa that run across any device and are hosted in the cloud (like AWS Lambda). However, designing a voice interface while delivering outstanding experiences to your customers, requires much more than just implementing a menu of commands.

1. © 2018, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. All rights reserved.
Build Voice-Enabled
Experiences with Alexa

2. 4.54 billion years

3. 200,000 years

4. 100,000 years

5. 70s 80s 90s 00s Present
Graphical User
Interface (GUI)
Character Mode
Voice User Interface (VUI)
Mobile
Web

6. VOICE REPRESENTS THE
NEXT MAJOR DISRUPTION IN COMPUTING

8. and growing every day

9. Alexa, add “book flight” to my Todo list1Locate Phone1
Unlock Phone2
Locate and open appropriate app3
Find right To-do list, tap “Add Todo”4
Type name of task, tap “Done”5
Exit app / close phone6
Put away phone7
The “modern” way Easier, faster & more natural way
ADDING A REMINDER

10. Alexa, turn off the bedroom light1
Locate Phone1
Unlock Phone2
Locate and open appropriate app3
Navigate to appropriate bulb/room4
Tap “turn off light”5
Exit app / close phone6
Put away phone7
The “modern” way
Easier, faster & more natural way
Get up and walk to lights1
Turn light switch(es) to “Off”2
The old way
TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS

11. Alexa, play AR
Rahman songs
on Saavn

12. Alexa, ask Ola to book a ride

13. Alexa, ask Zomato to recommend
restaurants near me

14. A L E X A I S A L W A Y S G E T T I N G S M A R T E R

15. Alexa Frameworks
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning

16. Create Great Content:
ASK is how you connect
to your consumer
ALEXA
SKILLS
KIT
Alexa Frameworks
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning

17. ALEXA
VOICE
SERVICE
Unparalleled Distribution:
AVS allows your content
to be everywhere
Create Great Content:
ASK is how you connect
to your consumer
ALEXA
SKILLS
KIT
Alexa Frameworks
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning

18. Building for Voice
with Alexa

19. Creating an Alexa Skill
Voice User Interface Programming Logic
+

20. Creating an Alexa Skill
Voice User Interface Programming Logic
+
developer.amazon.com aws.amazon.com

21. Alexa Skills Kit
Request
Audio
Response
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Cards

22. Wake word
detection
Beam forming
Cards
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Request
Response
Alexa Skills Kit: Signal Processing

23. Alexa Skills Kit: Speech to text
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response
Cards
Utterances
Intents

24. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition
fȯ r tē tīmz

25. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition
fȯ r tē tīmz
Forty Times? 40x

26. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition
fȯ r tē tīmz
Forty Times? 40x
For Tea Times?

27. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition
fȯ r tē tīmz
Forty Times?
For Tea Times?
For Tee Times?
40x

28. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition
fȯ r tē tīmz
Forty Times?
For Tea Times?
Four Tee Times?
40x

29. Alexa Skills Kit: Utterances Into Intents
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response
Cards
Utterances
Intents

30. Alexa,
wake word
S P E A K I N G W I T H A L E X A

31. Alexa, ask restaurant finder for breakfast
wake word Invocation namelaunch
S P E A K I N G W I T H A L E X A
utterance
for a good breakfast place
to find places to eat in the
morning
a spot that serves the most
important meal of the day

32. Utterances
Intent
Utterances and Intents
RecomendationIntent
to find
places to
eat in the
morning
a good
breakfast
place
where to
eat
breakfast

33. Alexa, open restaurant finder
Intents and Slots
Recommend a restaurant within four miles
slot
utterance
RecommendationIntent
{distance: “4”}
slot value
intent

34. Tell me about Italian food within four miles
slot
RecommendationIntent
{distance: “4”}
slot value
intent
slot
{cuisine: “Italian food”}
Intents and Slots

35. Alexa Skills Kit: Requests and Responses
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response
Cards
Audio
Intents

36. Alexa Skills Kit: Output
Your Service
Text to Speech
SSML, streaming audio
Machine Learning
Natural Language
Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response
Cards
Audio
Intents

37. SSML
• Speech Synthesis Markup Language
• TTS (Text-to-Speech)

38. SSML
• Pauses
well, okay
well <break time="3s"/> okay

39. SSML
• Pronunciation Hints
<say-as interpret-as="spell-out">
Hello
</say-as>

40. SSML
Speechcons
<say-as interpret-as="interjection">
Balle balle
</say-as>

41. Under the hood
On-Device Processing Cloud Processing
Wake Word
Detection
Automatic
Speech
Recognition
Natural Language
Understanding
Skill Text to Speech
Signal Processing
User: “Alexa, is it hot outside?”
Audio
Echo: “The
weather in
Hyderabad is:”Beamformed Signal
Audio
Stream
Speech to Text
Intent: GetWeather
Location:
Hyderabad,
IN

42. alexa.design/indiacheckin

43. Conversational platforms
will drive the next big
paradigm shift in how
humans interact
with the digital world.
Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018
“
”
amazon alexa

44. Thank you!