Expanding Globally, Amazon’s Alexa Strives to Keep Local Mindset
Getting Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa to work across the globe and in many languages requires that the company’s engineers keep the “local experience” in mind, according to Toni Reid, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa Experience and Echo.
The voice assistant has more than 100 million customers world-wide, she said Monday at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival.
Developers have to understand differences in the way people speak. English in Australia is different from English in India, the U.S. or the U.K. They also have to keep users’ accents in mind so that Alexa doesn’t misinterpret or misunderstand commands. Mistakes mean that sometimes Amazon has employees listen to select Alexa recordings to improve its software. Recently, the tech giant came under fire after reports surfaced that employees were listening to customers’ Alexas.
Gloss