Indians following IPL are asking Alexa five questions on cricket every minute

• During the Indian Premier League (IPL) Indians are asking Amazon's virtual assistant, Alexa, more than five cricket related questions every minute.
• Certain IPL teams have launched their own set of skills on Alexa so that fans can follow updates.
• Honing in Alexa's cricket skills in a part of localising Alexa for India and its users.

Amazon's bid to make Alexa as Indian as possible for its customers in the subcontinent would have been incomplete if she wasn't geared to answer questions on cricket. Now, a year after those skills were integrated into Alexa, she is flooded with five questions every minute on cricket alone.

The questions particularly pile up when the Indian Premier League (IPL) season is in full swing. The annual domestic cricket league pulls in over 700 million viewers.

Amazon's Echo device is one of the options for those missing out on the live action.

In an interview with Business Insider India, the country manager of Alexa Skills at Amazon India, Dilip RS, explains that the Alexa Skills team in India has been working with cricket teams like the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore to launch their skills on Alexa. This allows users to follow their favorite team's podcasts, hear interviews, and listen in on player facts etc.


However, Alexa's commentary does not stop with IPL as the cricket fever continues through the year. Some of the most popular questions posed include, "Alexa, what's India's score," "Alexa, what's the cricket score," and "Alexa, when is India's next match?"

And to make the most of India's love for cricket, Amazon is building on Alexa's capabilities. Dilip claims that, during an ongoing match, she's capable of answering questions like, “Alexa, what's the projected score,” or “Alexa, how many sixers did Kohli hit?”

If users want to check their own knowledge of cricket trivia, launching Alexa's Cricket Assistant — yes, there's irony in an assistant having its own assistant — can help by letting fans play the ‘Daily Cricket Trivia' challenge.

Integrating cricket skills for Alexa is a part of Amazon India's process to make Alexa more Indian.


See also:
These were the 25 most popular Alexa Skills of 2018, according to Amazon

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa - here are some of the areas they're working on

Amazon accidentally sent Alexa recordings of a user in the shower to the wrong person