While Google previously dabbled in consumer electronics with products like Chromecast, it wasn’t until this year that the Mountain View-based tech giant became more serious about consumer-grade hardware. Among other things, the company recently debuted the Google Pixel, Google Pixel XL, and Google Home, all three of which are infused with Google Assistant, the firm’s latest AI companion. While Google Assistant is already capable of many things, it heavily relies on deep learning and third-party developers to continue improving and gradually becoming more useful. Google is aware of that fact, which is why the company recently debuted Conversation Actions, a way for independent developers to come up with their own set of features for the firm’s AI-powered companion.
Today, the US media company CNBC announced its own Google Assistant Conversation Actions. In a press release sent to media outlets earlier today, CNBC explained how this new set of features is designed to enable Google Assistant to provide users with all sorts of information reported by the New Jersey-based company. Among other things, CNBC Conversation Actions support business news, CNBC television schedule, and stock market reports. This integration works in real-time which means you’ll get access to all of the latest information whenever you ask for it. The way this feature works is rather simple: after activating the Google Assistant with its trigger phrase “Ok, Google,” all you have to do is ask it to provide you with a CNBC report on something. For example, you can order your virtual assistant to “ask CNBC when Fast Money Halftime Report is on TV,” or ask it to let you “talk to CNBC about recent news.” Of course, the keyword here is “CNBC,” so any phrase which includes the name of this media company should do the trick.
CNBC is the first major firm that took advantage of these recently introduced Conversation Actions, and more parties are expected to follow suit shortly. Provided that Google can continue encouraging third-party developers to work on expanding the functionality of its latest virtual assistant, that will certainly help the company compete with Amazon’s Alexa and other upcoming AI-powered companions that the industry is getting ready to launch in 2017. All of CNBC’s Conversation Actions for Google Assistant are available as of today.