Alexa for Business: Amazon AI assistant in corporate America, will Cortana kill her?

Alexa for Business is a new service being launched by Amazon to allow companies to craft their own voice commands and related skills that are highly customized to their business and corporate needs.

For example, executives will be able to access calendars, corporate directories or client data using their voice.

The service is currently in beta, with several corporate testers trying out new skills, like giving employees access to lighting control and blocking meeting rooms with voice commands.

The biggest challenge is to get companies to invest in the hardware – Amazon Echo devices – in bulk.

The other downside? Microsoft’s Cortana is already available to companies that have migrated to Windows 10.

Cortana is a lot more robust as a business tool because of its deep integration with Office 365.

The big question: Can Alexa for Business push Cortana out of the way and be the dominant “voice of corporate America”?

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