Amazon has today announced that users in India can pay their utility bills with Amazon Pay by simply speaking to its virtual assistant Alexa. The company has revealed that users can pay different bills by simply saying, “Alexa, pay my mobile bill” or “Alexa, pay my electricity bill”.
With this, one can pay bills across different categories including electricity, water, post-paid mobile, cooking gas, broadband, DTH and more. The company has revealed users of Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick and other devices with Alexa built-in can use these features.
Furthermore, for existing Amazon Pay customers, Alexa will first retrieve the amount due for bills from their registered account and will ask the customer for confirmation before processing the payment. Users can also set voice PIN on the Alexa App to make transactions. Once Alexa gets approval, it will complete the transaction using Amazon Pay and it will send a notification to the mobile number, confirming the transaction. For new Amazon Pay users, Alexa will send a link to the registered account on Amazon shopping application before processing the bill payment.
In addition to making payments, customers can ask “Alexa, what’s my balance?” to know the amount available for purchases in their Amazon Pay wallet. To top-up the Amazon Pay account say “Alexa, add ₹500 to my Amazon Pay balance” and Alexa will send a link to the registered mobile phone to complete the transaction.
Commenting on the launch Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager for Alexa Experiences and Devices, Amazon India said “We consistently obsess over customer needs and consider their feedback when developing new Alexa features. This new integration of Amazon Pay with Alexa will help reduce both time and effort for customers who use Amazon Pay for bill payments and repeat similar transactions every month. We are also excited to share that this is an India-first feature which Alexa customers in India can enjoy before any other international customers.”