The health industry is worth billions of dollars, if not more, which is why it is understandable that there are many tech companies out there who are starting to expand into creating health products, such as Apple, Google, and so on. Unsurprisingly Amazon is also interest, as we have heard in the past, but now it looks like they’re planning on leveraging Alexa as well.
In a report from CNBC, they have obtained a document which seems to suggest that Amazon is building a “health and wellness” team within their Alexa division. This seems to hint that Amazon could be interested in somehow leveraging Alexa for health features and functionality. It is unclear what specifically we might be talking about, but it seems that the team’s main job is to make Alexa more useful in the healthcare industry.
However we might have gotten a glimpse to Amazon’s plans because just in 2017, Amazon worked with Merck on developing Alexa skills to help people manage their diabetes. They even held a competition for developers to create appropriate skills, so it is pretty obvious that Amazon does seem potential for Alexa in the healthcare industry.
Maybe it could be that Alexa could be used to remind users to take their medications, or tie it in with health devices so that it can alert them to changes in their health, schedule doctor appointments, and so on. In any case Amazon isn’t commenting on their plans for now, so we’ll just have to wait and see.