Voice is the most natural way for humans to communicate and will be the ubiquitous way to communicate with computer systems in the 21st century. Learn how you can voice enable your products or services by developing Voice-based Applications (aka Skills) for Amazon Alexa. After a quick state of the union, this talk will teach you to create a voice based user experience and to deploy it to Amazon Alexa. We will explain the main concepts of a voice application and we will show you how to create a Skill from scratch. Level : 200 - coding experience required.

1. Creéz votre première Skill Alexa sur AWS
Sébastien Stormacq
Manager, Alexa Solution Architecture, EU @ sebsto

2. 1 9 7 0 s 1 9 8 0 s 1 9 9 0 s P R E S E N T2 0 0 0 s
This Magic Moment
Character Mode
GUI
Web
Mobile
VUI

3. Voice represents the
next major disruption
in computing
W E B E L I E V E :

4. Comprised of two important frameworks that enable brands to connect to customers
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning
Alexa’s Framework

5. Comprised of two important frameworks that enable brands to connect to customers
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning
ALEX A
V O ICE
SERV ICE
Unparalleled Distribution:
AVS allows your content
to be everywhere
Alexa’s Framework

6. A L E X A - E N A B L E D D E V I C E S

7. Comprised of two important frameworks that enable brands to connect to customers
ALEX A
V O ICE
SERV ICE
Unparalleled Distribution:
AVS allows your content
to be everywhere
Lives In The Cloud
Automated Speech
Recognition (ASR)
Natural Language
Understanding (NLU)
Always Learning
ALEX A
SKILLS
KIT
Create Great Content:
ASK is how you connect
to your consumer
Alexa’s Framework

9. Alexa Skills Store
(Desktop & Mobile)
Alexa App
(Desktop & Mobile)
Or just ask Alexa!
Where and How to find Skills ?

10. Custom
For crafting unique
app experiences
Smart Home
For controlling smart
home and devices
Flash Briefing
For providing flash
briefing content (either
audio, video or text)
“Alexa, allume la
cuisine”
“Alexa, quel est mon
flash quotidien ?”
“Alexa, demande à
Marmiton une recette
de crêpes.”

11. Voice User Interface Programming Logic
+
developer.amazon.com aws.amazon.com
(could be hosted anywhere)
Back-EndFront-End

12. Alexa Skills Kit
Request
Audio
Response
Your Service
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Speech Recognition
Cards

13. Wake word
detection
Beam forming
Cards
Your Service
Request
Alexa Skills Kit: Signal Processing
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response

14. Alexa
wake
word
S p e a k w i t h A l e x a

15. Alexa Skills Kit: Utterances Into Intents
Your Service
Cards
Utterances
Intents
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response

16. Alexa, ouvre mon restaurant
wake
word
Invocation namelaunch
S p e a k w i t h A l e x a
démarre
commence
lance
allume
mets

17. Alexa, demande à mon restaurant une suggestion pour le déjeuner
wake
word
Invocation namelaunch
S p e a k w i t h A l e x a
utterance
une recommendation pour le midi
un bon endroit pour manger
la meilleure place pour déjeuner

18. Alexa, ouvre mon restaurant
wake word invocation namelaunch
S p e a k w i t h A l e x a
Recommande-moi un restaurant avec quatre kilometres de marche
slot
utterance
RecommendationIntent
{distance: “4”}
slot value
intent

19. Alexa Skills Kit: Requests and Responses
Your Service
Cards
Audio
Intents
Text to Speech
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Speech Recognition
Response

20. Text to Speech (SSML)
Machine Learning
Natural Language Understanding
Speech Recognition
Alexa Skills Kit: Output
Your Service
Cards
Audio
Intents
Response

21. Upload your code Setup your triggers Runs only when triggered
Pay only for the compute
time used!
Deploy your Back-End
AWS Lambda

22. Language (Interaction) Model Skill Code (Lambda Function) Skill Publish Information
Alexa Developer Portal Alexa Developer PortalAWS Console Local Code+
Skill Development

23. Local Code
Language (Interaction) Model Skill Code (Lambda Function) Skill Publish Information
Skill Development
alexa.design/askcli

24. ASK Command Line Interface
Based on Node JS
• Runs on Windows, Mac, Linux
Manage Skills Programmatically
• uses Skills Management API (SMAPI)
Deploy Skill Lambda Functions
• uses AWS CLI under the hood
alexa.design/askcli
ASK CLI != AWS CLI

25. Skill Manifest
CLI mapping to profile
information
Front-End
Back-End

26. alexa.design/nodesdk alexa.design/javaalexa.design/python

27. LET’S BUILD A SKILL

28. Persistence

29. • Remember: AWS Lambda maintains no state across executions
• As a Skill Builder, you therefore have two layers of memory:
Session Attributes Persistent Attributes
Expire when session ends Persist across sessions
Memory

30. Sessions Attributes
const attributesManager = handlerInput.attributesManager;
const sessionAttributes = attributesManager.getSessionAttributes();
/*
YOUR CODE LOGIC HERE
*/
sessionAttributes["profile"] = ...;
attributesManager.setSessionAttributes(sessionAttributes);

31. Connect to Amazon DynamoDB
const skillBuilder = Alexa.SkillBuilders.standard();
exports.handler = skillBuilder
.addRequestHandlers( // ... handlers )
.addRequestInterceptors( // ... request interceptors )
.addResponseInterceptors( // ... response interceptors )
.addErrorHandlers(ErrorHandler)
.withTableName("theFoodie")
.withAutoCreateTable(true)
.lambda(); Table

32. Fully managed
Low cost
Predictable performance
Massively scalable
Highly available

33. Persistent Attributes
const attributesManager = handlerInput.attributesManager;
let persistentAttributes = await attributesManager.getPersistentAttributes();
persistentAttributes.profile.allergies = "shellfish";
attributesManager.setPersistentAttributes(persistentAttributes);
attributesManager.savePersistentAttributes();

34. AWS-SDK to call services

35. Ressources
alexa.design/france Alexa Skills Kit in France
alexa.design/github
alexa.design/guide Alexa Voice Design Guide
Github Alexa
alexa.design/videotutorial Video Series : Building Alexa Skills from Scratch
alexa.design/nodesdk Main repo for the ASK NodeJS SDK
alexa.design/askcli Alexa Command Line Interface

36. Merci !
@ sebsto