Alexa may answer your questions with ads soon

Amazon wants Alexa owners to buy more things. That's the clear impetus behind the new Alexa feature announced today at Amazon's Accelerate conference, called Customers Ask Alexa, which lets brands submit answers to common questions like "How can I remove pet hair from my carpet?" and "How to eliminate odor from soil stains?" Previously, Alexa supplied generic tips from the web and other sources in response to such queries. But Customers Ask Alexa basically turns answers into sponsored product spots. "Brands registered with Amazon Brand Registry will see the new Customers Ask Alexa feature in Seller Central, where they can easily discover and answer frequently asked customer questions using self-service tools," Amazon explains in a blog post.