“Our vision is for Alexa to be everywhere, and that means making it available to other companies and services to integrate into a wide range of devices,” he explained.
“We expect Alexa to be in many devices over time, including products that compete with Echo, which is why we’re investing in making a wide range of hands-free and far-field reference solutions available to OEMs [original equipment manufacturers].”
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39589233
Here is how Alexa will impact your business:
- Your business is moving one step further away from your end customer. This shift isn’t happening because you want it to or even have a say in it. It’s happening because a small device is inserting itself between you as manufacturer or supplier, and the end customer.
- Devices like this will integrate themselves deeper into the lives of people at the end of the value creation chain. This means that the areas of influence and control over buying decisions are shifting. This may be slowly disconnecting you from the value chain.
- Alexa won’t respect long-standing personal relationships between manufacturers, retailers, and end-use customers.
- Your business will be forced to work with these purchase and service devices. It cannot beat it. Sorry.
Devices like Amazon’s Alexa will impact your business and its value chains. To remain connected to the value chain, your company will have to be pro-active and intentional. The same goes for staying connected to your end customer and their evolving needs.
