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​Amazon to flex Internet of things, artificial intelligence muscle in 2016

Amazon is generating interest and social buzz with its front-end Internet of things and smart home products like Echo and Dash. What happens if Amazon connects the dots with AWS on the back-end?
Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor

Amazon's Echo along with efforts like Dash are two front-runners in the smart home and if you couple the managed Internet of things cloud service from Amazon Web Service there's a stack that the e-commerce giant is likely to connect in the future.

The back-end Internet of things efforts are well known for Amazon. Amazon in October outlined its AWS IoT managed services. At the same time, Amazon was pushing its Echo as a holiday gift and rolling out Dash. Couple Amazon's core supply chain data and it's clear that the company could be a smartphone hub and position itself as a useful artificial intelligence helper to compete with the likes of Apple Siri, Google Now, Facebook M and Windows Cortana.

Adobe's data confirms that Amazon's IoT, smart home and artificial intelligence efforts can combine to create a stack from the cloud to the consumer.

In Adobe's 2016 predictions, the company served up data from its analytics tools and surveys. Here's a look at two slides on Amazon's front end tools. Siri is the most widely known digital assistant, but let's get real: Apple's voice is a hit or miss effort. Amazon Echo is getting more favorable social reviews. Facebook M, which is still in beta, is also viewed as a Siri rival.

Here's a look at the key figures from Adobe regarding digital assistants.

digital-assistant-joy-and-admiration-share-of-social-sentiment.png

And here's a gauge of IoT device mentions on social for Amazon.

iot-popular-device-social-mentions.png

Simply put, Amazon has a smart front end to connect to its AWS backend with a ton of data it can exploit. Google is another contender, but the Google Now, On Hub and Nest connection is a bit fuzzier.

Where Amazon goes with IoT, artificial intelligence and smart home remains to be seen, but all the parts are there and can be combined to create a unique value proposition relative to where other tech giants--Google, Apple and Facebook--are going.

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