Aston Barclay is using Alexa technology to share the group’s auction programme to buyers through a new service.

Stewart Ford, group IT director

The virtual assistant responds to buyers each time they say ‘Alexa flash briefing’ by automatically announcing the auction activity at Chelmsford, Prees Heath, Westbury, Leeds and Donington Park over the next 24-hour period. It works on the Alexa smart speaker and via a smart phone when the Alexa App is downloaded.

“It’s a bit of fun, but it also plays a major part in our digital technology testing before rolling out to customers,” explained Stewart Ford, Aston Barclay’s group IT director.

“Voice recognition is becoming an important channel to access information in your house, your car and office and we need to be mindful of adapting our technology to enable customers to engage with us in this way,” he added.

The new service, along with all the group’s new ‘connecting customers with cars’ technology, will be showcased at the forthcoming tours of its new Wakefield ‘mega centre’ in early January, prior to the new site opening for business.