Amazon announces Alexa private skill set tool for businesses

Amazon has announced Alexa for Business Blueprints, which will enable Amazon for Business customers to create and implement a private skill set for their specific organization. Private skills are unique to a specific business and cannot be accessed by an outside entity.

Skill Blueprints for the home have already been applicable to Alexa’s software, but now Alexa customers can fill out custom questions and answers pertaining to their businesses schedule, protocol, onboarding and more. Customers can program their Alexa to answer requests like “What’s the next day the office is closed?” and “What is IT’s number?”

To use the new feature, customers can go to the Alexa Skill Blueprints website, create their unique skill set, publish their private skill set, and then an IT admin with review & enable the blueprint.

“Using a link provided by the company’s Alexa for Business administrator, anyone, whether an executive assistant, salesperson, line of business owner, or IT admin, can use any available Skill Blueprint on the Alexa Skill Blueprints website to create, test, and then publish a private skill to their organization. Once distributed, the company’s IT admin can then review and enable the skill for the organization’s shared devices and enrolled users,” said the company.

Amazon has also added two new Skill Blueprints, including a Business Q&A blueprint and an Onboard Guide blueprint. New hires will now be able to ask Alexa “How do I” and “Where is” types of questions.