Amazon is moving closer to a world where shopping online is as simple as uttering a word.
Today, the company announced that members of its Prime service can now order “tens of millions” of items with Alexa, Amazon’s voice-controlled assistant. Previously, Prime members who own one of four devices with Alexa could do this with things they’ve purchased in the past or through “Amazon’s Choice,” a service where the company picks products.
Running out of the house but just remembered you’re out of coffee? “Alexa, order Starbucks coffee,” Amazon offers as an example. Another: “Alexa, order Charmin toilet paper.”
The feature will test the strength of Amazon’s artificial intelligence, particularly as competitors, chiefly Google, are bringing their own voice-search products to the home. To see this feature take off, Amazon will also need to keep Prime membership growing.
Both of those issues are among the big threats to Amazon’s sterling growth.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?
Most news outlets make their money through advertising or subscriptions. But when it comes to what we’re trying to do at Vox, there are a couple reasons that we can't rely only on ads and subscriptions to keep the lights on.
First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead.
Second, we’re not in the subscriptions business. Vox is here to help everyone understand the complex issues shaping the world — not just the people who can afford to pay for a subscription. We believe that’s an important part of building a more equal society. We can’t do that if we have a paywall.
That’s why we also turn to you, our readers, to help us keep Vox free. If you also believe that everyone deserves access to trusted high-quality information, will you make a gift to Vox today?
Yes, I'll give $5/month
Yes, I'll give $5/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and
Google Pay. You can also contribute via
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63712026/Amazon_Echo_speaker_array.0.jpg)
