AWS re:Invent 2018

The abundance of data available today has been described as a sea change and its own economy. Data has enabled new products, services, businesses, and economies. How can designers thrive as data-savvy innovators in this new economy? What do designers need to know about data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence? In this talk, Jodi Forlizzi draws from multiple research and development efforts to present relevant findings about how to design in a new data-driven economy.

Quantum computing's theoretical potential to exponentially speed up deep learning stands in sharp contrast to the current reality. Implementations are imperfect, suffering from noise and poor coherence times, and scalability limitations. In this talk, we explore how quantum-enhanced machine learning plays a complementary role to classical techniques, rather than acting as a replacement. We discuss relevant computing paradigms, such as quantum annealing and gate-model quantum computing over discrete or continuous variables that are performed efficiently with hybrid classical-quantum protocols.

Since its launch in 2015, Alexa has enabled new experiences across many device form factors at home, work, in the car, and on the go. With over 50,000 published skills, hundreds of new API features releases, and numerous Alexa-enabled devices, it can be hard to keep track with of the current pace. In this session, we get you up to speed on the current Voice First movement, the current Conversational AI trends, and we give demonstrations of some of the latest Alexa features and devices. Come learn about the new Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) multi-modal framework, Alexa Presentation Language (APL) for developers, Alexa skill fulfillment and consumables for customers, and some of the latest device offerings utilizing the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and the new Alexa Gadgets Toolkit.

In this session, we walk you through the process of designing and adding in-skill purchasing to your skills. Experienced developers share their in-skill purchasing journey, the lessons they learned, and the best practices that they followed.

Join us for a deep dive into the system architecture for voice-enabled products with "Alexa Built-In". Device makers can use the Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to add conversational AI to a variety of products from smart speakers to headphones, screen-based devices to smarthome, and more. Learn how to choose the right hardware and software tools, ensure great customer experience with test and certification guidelines, and leverage qualified solution providers to get your products to market faster. Complete Title: AWS re:Invent 2018: Voice Assistants Beyond Smart Speakers - Integrate Alexa into Your Unique Product (ALX305)

Games push the boundaries of tech, enabling us to learn from them for a wide range of use cases. Join Gal Shenar, founder of Stoked Skills, in this talk about designing and implementing Alexa in-skill purchasing for 'Escape the Room' and 'Escape the Airplane' game skills. Learn about optimizing the user experience by soft launching with live updates and implementing a premium content in-skill purchase gate while monitoring user experience flow to increase conversion rates by using AWS Lambda.

Learn how the new Alexa Presentation Language makes it easy to develop interactive voice and touch experiences that are portable to any Alexa enabled device with a screen-tablets, TVs, Echo Show, Echo Spot, and more. Learn how to use the new APL file format, reusable UI components, and device groupings to create rich, interactive multimodal experiences that automatically adapt to target devices.

In this session, learn about the latest update to the Smart Home Skill API, featuring new capability interfaces you can use as building blocks to connect any device to Alexa, including those that fall outside of the traditional smart home categories of lighting, locks, thermostats, sensors, cameras, and audio & video gear. Also learn how to create Alexa Skills that contain multiple interaction models to provide a seamless customer experience. We walk through an example case study to demonstrate how you can implement these technologies to model any device or feature with Alexa.

In this session, developers learn how to leverage Alexa in-skill purchasing APIs, Amazon Pay, and developer reporting tools to help unlock premium digital content in a custom voice experience. Discover how in-skill purchasing gives customers and developers the flexibility of making payments through consumables, subscriptions, and one-time entitlements. Dive deep, and leave this session with everything you need to know to make money with Alexa skills.

In this session, we explore the suite of developer tools offered by the Alexa Skills team and dive into how they can help you be more productive in coding, deploying, testing, debugging, and collaborating with others on your skill. Learn about the different tools and libraries we have built to help you through the development process. A guest speaker joins us to introduce real-world use cases where our tools helped the team improve their productivity and the robustness of their skill.