Alexa Skills and Google Actions are voice applications built on top of Alexa and Google Home / Google Assistant.

The next generation will expect businesses to have Alexa Skills. Watch this video or keep reading to find out why.

You can build these apps for just about anything. For example, in this video, I demo what would happen if I forgot my entire Nashville Voice Conference introduction, but I built a voice app to help me.

I'm really excited because we are at the very beginning of something that is going to shake the way businesses are run.

If you remember, back in 1999, not that many businesses had websites. Well, by 2003, it was pretty much unheard of for businesses NOT to have websites.

That is what we are going through now in 2019 with Alexa Skills and Google Actions related to businesses.

Whatever our role or responsibility, whether a Small Business Owner, Entrepreneur, Marketer, Product Owner, Developer or Operations person, we can all benefit from voice tech.

While voice tech is still early and new, the data shows it is actually going to be expected that businesses have Alexa Skills in the next 12-36 months.

A perfect example is Dan Winterberg, a 10 year old from Georgia who attended the Nashville Voice Conference with his father Bill, because Dan builds Alexa Skills for his class projects in elementary school.

So when Dan enters the workforce in 10 years or so, you can bet he'll EXPECT that the company he works for will have 10-15 Alexa Skills, including at least one that allows him to access the voice-based version of the company intranet.

This is happening now, and if you want information on building these kinds of voice-based apps for your business, please email me at paul@datadriven.design.

I've worked with a ton of small businesses, a ton of small business owners and marketers, and I've experienced the behavior that comes from being overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the ever-changing aspects of digital marketing, design, branding, websites and digital strategy.

I know this seems like "just one more thing we all have to do," and I'm very empathetic to that.

But I really want everyone to think this is the beginning of using voice apps to make your lives easier.

Don't just think of it as one more thing you have to do. Let's work together to integrate it into what you're already doing to make your work life more efficient and effective.
Thanks for reading, watching and listening, and have a great day!