Amazon is adding a new feature of sending money by using its voice assistant Alexa. A Virginia based software company Daon is developing the technology to send money through Amazon’s voice assistant. Banks might adopt the feature within 9 to 18 months. Amazon voice assistants are available on a series of smart speakers launched by the company.The top e-commerce website Amazon is also preparing to provide a checking account that makes it simple to transfer money from one account to another account with banks including J.P. Morgan and Capital One. Capital One, Ally Bank and American Express already offer an Alexa Skill that allows the users to clear credit card dues, auto loan payment and even transfer money from the saving account to checking accounts. But, the work of transferring money from one account to another is not available yet.
The innovation to transfer money through Alexa could face competition as phones have already made it easy to send and receive money. A demo presented by one of the engineers of the company (Daon) amplifying the skill asked Alexa to open the Daon bank account by voice. Post this, Alexa presented two options for either checking balance or sending money. Once the user wants to send money through voice command, Alexa asks for authentication, which was done by the mobile app of the bank. Authentication can be done by facial recognition (taking a snap of the face), or through voice, fingerprint technology or a pin on the app depending on the bank. Users don’t need to install another app for authentication; the bank app will be used to authenticate a transaction.
Anyone can stop from sending money through the voice command; users will be required to add the person as the payee on the user’s bank account online to send the money through Alexa. The Alexa might be able to directly authenticate transactions using the voice of the user in future.
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