NoHold Looks to Turn Documents into Amazon Alexa Skills
Last December, NoHold introduced SICURA QuickStart, a product to help small businesses create chatbots from structured texts, like a Word document. Now NoHold is looking to do the same for Amazon Alexa skills. Right now, developing Alexa skills is a fairly manual process that requires at least some programming knowledge. NoHold is looking to change that. It wants to empower small businesses to take advantage of Amazon Alexa’s technology, like an AirBnb host who might want to help guests navigate their new surroundings or for a small company who wants a talking employee handbook.
Amazon Alexa for Beginners
In the demo video, the process looks pretty simple. Basically, after inputting the document, NoHold’s chatbot, nicknamed Albert, can be also be used with Alexa. For instance, “Alexa, ask Albert where the water heater is” and then Alexa relays the information. While not nearly as complex or refined as a skill you would find from Starbucks for instance, it still gives the user the basic information they were looking for. Probably all a small business would need to for Alexa to be useful.
The company’s next goal is to make the Alexa skills developed with QuickStart available for download from the Alexa market place. But for that to happen, Amazon will need to make a few changes to its development tools. No word yet on when and if these changes will be made. But for those with no programming experience, NoHold’s QuickStart is an easy for beginner’s to get on Amazon Alexa and to learn more about programming a skill. View the video below for a quick demo.
