Weekly Digest: New Healthcare Assistant and Alexa in Switzerland

This week in Conversational AI.

Image Credit: Polina Pirogova/ Just AI

Humana Insurance and IBM collaborate on a virtual assistant

Health insurance provider Humana relied on IBM Watson’s conversational AI to launch a chatbot. The new virtual assistant will consult employees on health plans and estimate costs when asked. Using everything it learns about the insurance plan member, the assistant will make its responses more personalized and accurate to the context. Via Voicebot.ai.

Amazon is adding Alexa to Ring Doorbell

Soon, Alexa will be able to greet anyone who comes to your house from Ring Video Doorbell Pro. Called Alexa Greetings, the new feature requires a Ring Protect subscription (starting at $3 a month) and enables Amazon’s assistant to talk to visitors and offer them to leave a video recording as a message or instruct a delivery person on where to leave the packages. Via The Verge.

Android Auto now allows creating custom Google Assistant shortcuts

Android Auto gets a powerful new feature: custom Assistant shortcuts offering users the ability to quickly launch a set of commands with a quick tap instead of using just their voice. For example, with the new feature, users can have a command for an Assistant routine or a general quick statement. Via 9 to 5 Google.

Alexa is coming to Switzerland in beta

Amazon is inviting people in Switzerland to join an Alexa beta program, which suggests Amazon is planning to bring the full range of Alexa’s features to the country. There are no details yet, so let’s wait and see. Via Voicebot.ai.