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Amazon kicks off Alexa trial in Brazil

The company is testing the Brazilian Portuguese service with a group of consumers.
Written by Angelica Mari, Contributing Writer

Amazon is taking its first steps towards evolving its artificial intelligence-enabled voice assistant Alexa in Brazil.

The company said it was "excited to bring Alexa to Brazil" and that it will be asking some of its customers "to help refine her capabilities over the coming months."

An email was sent out by the company last week inviting some of its Brazilian customers to take part in the trial. The communication from Amazon states that participants will be provided with an Echo speaker.

Amazon did not disclose details about how long the trial will take or when it is due to start.

In its email to prospective trial participants, Amazon says Alexa functionality in Portuguese will be limited but new features will be included by the development teams during the experiment.

The company's initial developments for Alexa in Brazil come nearly two years after Google launched its own voice assistant in the country.

Amazon has been increasing its investment in Brazil recently, having launched its full-scale retail website in the country earlier this year selling over 120,000 products across 15 categories other than books.

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