From playing animal sounds to Indian folktales, households with young kids spend 2X more time on Alexa

Kolkata: From listening to Indian folktales to playing animal sounds, Indian households with young kids who use Alexa at home are two times more engaged than other users.

Parents of young kids take Alexa's help in managing their day-to-day parenting tasks and keeping their kids engaged by asking Alexa for rhymes, stories, games, GK-related questions, and more.

Users enjoy the ease and convenience of giving simple voice commands to Alexa in Hindi, English, and Hinglish - making the AI a great aid for parents and companion for kids, according to a media statement here on Monday.

Alexa’s ability to produce animal sounds through the Wild Planet skill recently helped save a 13-year old girl and her 15-month old niece from monkey attack in Basti, Uttar Pradesh. By asking “Alexa, kutte ki awaz nikalo”, the girl was able to scare away the monkeys.

“Parents often tell us how Alexa has become a companion in their parenting journeys. The option to access a number of useful kid-friendly experiences with simple voice commands makes Alexa a great addition for a family with young kids,” says Dilip R.S., Director and Country Manager for Alexa, Amazon India.

“While it is a great learning and entertainment tool for kids, Alexa can help parents manage their day-to-day tasks better. Whether it is controlling smart home appliances with voice while juggling numerous tasks or asking for a bedtime story as part of their child’s daily routine, Alexa’s right there to help them.”

Today, families across India are asking Alexa for information, games, quizzes, music, managing day-to-day tasks, stories, and much more. In fact, weekends are family time with Alexa - last year there was a 15 per cent increase in requests to Alexa over the weekends in requests for music with many of them being for kids’ music.

The top five, most popular songs for kids on Alexa are: Baby Shark, Lakdi Ki Kathi, Johnny Johnny Yes Papa, Wheels on the Bus, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Indian folktales, like Akbar Birbal, Tenali Raman, and Panchatantra stories, see high interest from customers, especially in Hindi. In 2023, customers asked for these stories on an average of 34 times every hour.

With numerous voice-first engaging experiences for kids, parents can introduce their children to Alexa smart speakers like Echo Dot or Echo Pop that are safe because of on-device privacy settings and control over personal data usage via the Alexa privacy hub.