Amazon released new features today to give the developers of Alexa skills the choice to add more excitement to Alexa's voice, and the ability to speed or slow her pace -- or even whisper. The new feature is available to Alexa skills makers in the U.S., U.K., and Germany and is delivered via Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) tags. Like Alexa skills, Google Assistant actions can also be created using SSML . Other SSML tags introduced for Alexa developers today include an expletive beep and a general interest tag. Tags introduced today are the latest initiative by Amazon to make Alexa more expressive.

At Google I/O 2017 the company announced Bluetooth streaming will be available on Google Home, so that you can stream audio from any device, not just those running a compatible app. Over the last day or so, Android Police reports that some users have received a software update to version 90387 that added an option for "Paired Bluetooth devices" in settings. Using Home for Cast-enabled apps is great, but Bluetooth support will make things more universal. So far the update does not appear to be widely available, and Google has not officially announced it but if you have a Home at home, take a look at the settings and see if you're among the early testers.

Adobe on Thursday unveiled new voice analytics capabilities in Adobe Analytics Cloud designed to help brands personalize customer experiences and drive loyalty via voice-based interfaces. Apple's iPhone made its debut 10 years ago. Here's a look at how it has impacted business and the enterprise. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence technology from Adobe Sensei, the platform enables businesses to analyze voice-activated searches through AI assistant platforms including Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa. For companies developing skills or other voice-based app equivalents, the software will track performance across devices and platforms, and provide a clearer picture of the overall customer journey.

Take this scenario: A customer calls your insurance hotline. Your digital employee, let's call her "Ivy," takes the call and authenticates the customer, asking them for their account number and PIN. Ivy also finds out why the customer is calling, without having to ask: through deep integration with your company's CRM and case management system, "she" sees the customer has an open claim with you and has just visited your website to review the case before calling. Ivy logically infers the customer is calling because they want to speak to a person about the claim, which Ivy quickly confirms before connecting the customer with a live person. The live agent, let's call him "Mark," now speaks with the customer and, through personal experience and intuition -- while also following business process and decision rules -- determines that to advance the claim, more information is necessary.

Their latest guide sees them taking apart the Amazon Echo Show. Having spent some time with the new Alexa-powered device, we decided we quite like it. But the child trapped inside our adult body that wants to pry open every new gadget and marvel at its insides is admittedly keen to see what lies beneath its bulky exterior. Aside from its large size in comparison to a regular Echo, the main difference between the Echo Show and its predecessor is the 7-inch, 1024 x 600 touchscreen display, which iFixit assumed might have been borrowed from the Kindle Fire. That wasn't the case, however, as the screen wasn't the same as the one they saw in the tablet, but it came pretty darn close. Inside the Echo Show is a power supply board containing a 21-watt amplifier, which powers the impressive sounding speakers hidden behind its front frame.

Amazon Echo is getting an intercom function which allows users to'drop in' to the speakers remotely. Users can now access their Echo and Echo Dot speakers using different devices or the smartphone app. The feature was announced today in the US and will be available in the coming days. Users need to download the Alexa app on Android or iOS. To set up the intercom users have to go into the settings page in the Alexa app and name the device based on the room it is in. Users can then enable the'drop-in' feature.

Artificial Intelligence gets a bad rap in pop culture. Movies like Terminator (with its rebellious Skynet) and 2001 (with its murderous HAL 9000) portray a future where the robots get smart, and conclude that it is in their interests to try and destroy mankind. But the truth about AI is a lot more mundane, writes Kele Boakgomo, MD: financial services practice at Accenture in South Africa. Most of us use AI every day when we talk and interact with Siri or Google on our phones and AI is why Netflix knows what movies you'll like and what other products you'll want to buy on Amazon. And AI is poised to become a big deal in banking.

It's still hard to say if the voice-controlled aluminum can will be the next smartphone or the next Segway, but either way, brands are preparing. This morning Adobe launched a new set of analytics tools, Adobe Sensei for Voice, to help brands take advantage of conversational data to improve targeting and, ideally, conversions. Adobe says it can consume data from Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana and Bixby (lol one day). The company captures both user intent and contextual data -- context that can be put to use by brands when targeting customers across other channels like social and email. This means Adobe can track the actions users most often take with their conversational AI of choice and the things they regularly interact with -- think calling an Uber versus listening to the latest Portugal. In practice, developers and brands will have access to the frequency of user interactions and the sequential actions taken after engaging with a particular service.

Bangalore-based Niki.ai, which runs an artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant, has raised $2 million (about Rs 13 crore) in a Series A round of funding from San Francisco-based fund SAP.iO and existing investor Unilazer Ventures. VCCircle had exclusively reported on this development last month. Haresh Chawla of private equity firm True North, and Arihant Patni of Hive Technologies also invested, besides some US- and Germany-based investors, the company said on Wednesday. Software giant SAP launched SAP.iO with an initial investment of $35 million in March this year. The fund seeks to make early-stage investments in software startups with an aim to expand the SAP ecosystem.

A logo of Alibaba Group is pictured at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, October 14, 2015. "Amazon Echo", launched in 2014, is a speaker which one can leave on all day and give voice commands to, similar to Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone. Alibaba's new product would be made available only in China and speak only Mandarin, the source told Reuters. Apple and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, have unveiled products similar to Echo with the HomePod and Google Home. The Information, a technology website, was the first to report the news on Thursday.