The voice assistants have evolved significantly in recent years. By 2026, Alexa is no longer just a music player or light controller, but an actual automation hub capable of integrating with artificial intelligence, cloud services, and external systems.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create intelligent automations with Alexa, integrate it with external services, and add advanced capabilities using generative AI.
Athough new AI-based assistants have appeared, Alexa continues to be a very powerful platform due to its ecosystem and ease of integration.
Among its main advantages are:
For developers and home automation enthusiasts, Alexa remains an excellent platform for experimenting and building real solutions.
You will need a device compatible with Alexa, such as an Echo Dot or Echo Show.
You should have:
The routines are the main element to automate tasks within the Alexa ecosystem.
Within a routine, you can configure two main elements: the trigger and the actions.
Alexa allows you to activate routines through:
Simple example would be to create a voice command like:
“Echo, productivity mode”
The actions can include:
You can create a routine that says "Alexa, I’m going to work" and performs the following actions:
This type of automation improves productivity and demonstrates the real potential of Alexa.
To create more advanced automations, Alexa can connect to platforms like:
When the user says:
“Alexa, generate an app idea”
The flow could be:
This type of integration allows for the creation of personalized assistants focused on productivity or development.
Integration with AI is one of the most important trends in current virtual assistants.
The usual architecture for integrating AI with Alexa typically follows this flow:
Alexa sends a command to a webhook that connects to a backend. The backend consults an AI model and returns the response to Alexa.
Below is a basic example of a backend connecting Alexa with an AI model:
from fastapi import FastAPI import requests app = FastAPI() @app.post("/alexa-ai") async def alexa_ai(prompt: str): response = requests.post( "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions", headers={"Authorization": "Bearer API_KEY"}, json={ "model": "gpt-4", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}] } ) return {"respuesta": response.json()}
This backend can be invoked through a webhook from Alexa or from a custom Skill.
If you want to take Alexa to the next level, you can develop your own skills.
