This document summarizes a presentation about building voice experiences for Alexa. It provides an overview of Alexa, how it works, and steps to build a basic skill in 5 minutes or less. Tips are given for the certification process and monitoring Alexa skills. Links are also provided for additional documentation.

1. Start building for voice with Alexa
Eitan Sela - System Architect, WeissBeerger
“Turning drinks into data”
November 23, 2017
eitan.sela@gmail.com

2. $ whoami
• "Hands-On" system Architect with more than 17 years of
experience with billing, banking, information security (DLP) and
Cloud IoT/Big Data applications.
• AWS enthusiastic and serverless computing especially.
• Java development expert.
• Scalability Performance and Stabilization expert.
• Alexa skills developer and part time counselor (Are you also
interested? Go to www.israelclouds.com and read my articles).
• Member of the 4EPIC commune – 100 miles terrain bike riding.
eitan.sela@gmail.com

3. What to expect from this session
• Overview
• How Alexa works
• Build a voice experience in 5 minutes or less
• Pricing
• Tips from the trenches
• Q & A
• Links to get you started

4. Overview

5. The Evolving User Interface From Textual UI to Voice UI

6. Meet Alexa

7. Alexa
• Alexa is not a device, but rather a voice cloud service operated by
voice commands.
• Variety of devices: Echo, Echo 2nd generation, Echo Plus, Echo
Show, Echo Connect, Echo Dot, Echo Look.
• Enabled on other Amazon devices: Amazon Fire TV, Fire HD 8,10
Tablets and more.
• More than 15,000 skills in Amazon store.
• Celebrates 3 years!

8. Availability
• Alexa is available in the US, UK, Germany, India and Canada.
• Supports English (US/UK) and German.

9. How Alexa Works

10. Creating an Alexa Skill

11. Alexa Skills Kit

12. How does an Alexa request work?

13. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

14. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

15. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

16. ASR – Automatic Speech Recognition

17. Utterances and Intents

18. Built-in Slots

19. Example from Amazon store

20. Build a voice experience in 5 minutes or less

21. Step 1 – Sign in to AWS and create a Lambda function
• Log in to the AWS Management Console.
• From the list of services, select Lambda.
• Select to work on US East (N. Virginia) region, which is a supported region
for Lambda functions used with the Alexa Skills Kit.
• Create a Lambda Function and upload or write your code.
• Make sure the trigger is set to Alexa Skills Kit.
• Test your function.
• Copy the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the function.

22. Log in to the AWS Management Console and select Lambda

23. Select to work on US East (N. Virginia) region

24. Create a Lambda Function and upload or write your code

25. Make sure the trigger is set to Alexa Skills Kit

26. Test your function

27. Copy the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the function

28. Step 2 – Use the Amazon developer portal to configure your skill
• Sign in to the Amazon developer portal and select Alexa.
• Under ”Your Alexa Dashboards”, choose Get Started and choose Add a New
Skill.
• Name your skill and create an invocation name.
• Interaction Model – add Intent Schema, Custom slots and Sample
Utterances.
• Configure your endpoint – AWS Lambda function or HTTPS.
• Test your skill using Voice, Service simulator or Echosim.io.

29. Sign in to the Amazon developer portal and select Alexa

30. Choose ”Your Alexa Dashboards”

31. Choose Get Started and then Add a New Skill

32. Name your skill and create an invocation name

33. Interaction Model – add Intent Schema and Custom slots

34. Interaction Model – add Sample Utterances

35. Test your skill using Service simulator

36. Test your skill using Echosim.io

37. Tips from the trenches

38. Tips from the trenches
• Before trying to publish your skill, read “Certification Requirements for Custom
Skills” document carefully. You should meet all the requirements.
• Be patient. The certification process is a human led operation and it can span
for few iterations.
• Getting the approval for the certification takes few days. Plus few hours to a day
to be published in amazon store.
• Try to test your sample utterances and custom slots on a voice enables device.
Sometimes it will just not work for you.
• Monitor your AWS Lambda functions with AWS X-Ray. Alexa is an additional UI
for your service. Monitor response times carefully.

39. Q & A

40. Links to get you started
• https://www.israelclouds.com/article/developing-new-skill-to-alexa-user-guide-
part1
• https://www.israelclouds.com/article/developing-new-skill-to-alexa-user-guide-
part2
• https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit/alexa-skill-quick-start-tutorial
• https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/speech-synthesis-markup-
language-ssml-reference.html
•

41. We Are Hiring
• Do you want to have a sea view from your window?
• Do you want to drink draft beer from a selection of two kegs whenever you want?
• Do you have knowledge of Java, PHP, or FE development?
• Your place is with us!