What changed this week

• January 5, 2026: Amazon rolled out Alexa.com to Alexa+ Early Access customers—bringing the assistant to any browser.
• CES 2026: BMW previewed its next‑gen in‑car assistant powered by Alexa+, with rollouts starting H2 2026. BMW press release.
• January 6–9: Lenovo unveiled cross‑device ambient intelligence, Qira, designed to work across PCs and phones.
• Razer opened U.S. reservations for its holographic desk companion, Project AVA (shipping expected H2 2026).

Translation: your buyers can now discover, compare, and complete tasks with you from the web, the car, and the desk—often without visiting your homepage first.

Why founders should care

• New surface, same funnel. Alexa.com behaves like an AI search + action layer. If you’re not taggable there, you’re invisible.
• Ambient intent is high‑intent. Car, desk, and cross‑device requests are closer to purchase or booking moments.
• Attribution risk. Without a tracking plan, revenue will be miscredited to “Direct” or “Other.”

Your 72‑hour attribution plan

1) Define the actions and outcomes

Start by listing the tasks assistants should complete—and the conversions you’ll count:

• Actions: book_appointment, start_trial, add_to_cart, checkout, subscribe_newsletter, request_quote.
• Outcomes: confirmed_booking, paid_order, paid_subscription, qualified_lead.

2) Ship an Assistant Action API

Expose a minimal, well‑documented endpoint per action. Return IDs for attribution and reconciliation.

{
  "action": "book_appointment",
  "version": "2026-01-14",
  "input": {
    "customer": {"email": "sam@acme.com"},
    "slot": {"start": "2026-01-20T15:00:00Z", "tz": "America/Los_Angeles"},
    "notes": "BMW iX3 test drive"
  },
  "attribution": {
    "source": "alexa.com",
    "campaign": "assistant_q1",
    "session_id": "a1b2c3"
  }
}

Need help shipping this in a weekend? Our 48–72 hour Action API guide walks you through auth, idempotency, and error handling.

3) Mark up your site for discovery

Add structured data so assistants can parse your offerings quickly:

• Local/Services: LocalBusiness, Service, Offer, AreaServed, phone and booking URL.
• Commerce: product feeds with price, availability, shipping, and return policy; map SKUs to assistant‑friendly titles.
• Actions: link surface‑specific deep links (e.g., web, mobile, in‑car) with UTM stamps.

For ranking tactics, see Assistant App Store Optimization (AASO).

4) Stamp every session with consistent UTMs

Create a shared scheme across surfaces so analytics tools agree:

• utm_source: alexa.com | bmw-alexaplus | lenovo-qira | razer-ava
• utm_medium: assistant
• utm_campaign: q1-2026-launch | evergreen
• utm_content: intent (e.g., book, buy, subscribe)

Append these to your confirmation and fallback links surfaced by assistants. Example: /checkout?utm_source=alexa.com&utm_medium=assistant&utm_campaign=q1-2026-launch.

5) Log consent, identity, and attribution

Maintain a consent‑first ledger that captures: surface, user identifier (hashed), consent scope, action, outcome, and revenue. If you haven’t shipped your policy yet, start with our 48‑hour consent playbook.

6) Close the loop in analytics

Set up assistant‑specific channels and dashboards. Break out:

• Discovery to action rate (impressions → initiated_action).
• Action success rate (initiated_action → outcome).
• Revenue per surface and per intent.
• Time‑to‑value and refund/return deltas vs web.

Real‑world patterns to copy

• Local services (dentist, auto shop): Publish a single book_appointment endpoint. Accept date/slot, capture phone/email, return a confirmation URL with UTM. Offer a one‑tap “add insurance details later” link.
• Shopify/WooCommerce brands: Map top 25 SKUs to assistant‑friendly names. Prebuild carts by intent (e.g., “starter bundle”) and return signed checkout links. Use our 7‑day e‑commerce playbook.
• B2B SaaS: Support start_trial and request_quote. Auto‑enrich leads with firmographics and stamp utm_source=assistant to route in CRM.

Stay aligned with the roadmap

As of today (January 14, 2026):

• Web: Alexa.com is live for Alexa+ Early Access users; Amazon is expanding access quickly. See coverage and Amazon’s announcement.
• In‑car: BMW’s Alexa+ experience begins rolling out in H2 2026; ship now so you can rank and route from day one.
• Cross‑device: Lenovo Qira is an ambient layer across PCs/phones—optimize continuity (resume quotes, carts, and drafts across devices).
• Desk: Razer AVA reservations are open in the U.S. Design glanceable prompts and one‑step actions for a desktop companion context.

Avoid these early mistakes

1. Unlabeled links: Missing UTMs = lost attribution.
2. Chat‑only flows: Always return a signed web fallback (deep link) to complete payment or consent.
3. Generic offers: Assistants reward clarity. Use intent‑specific SKUs and simple language.
4. No consent trail: Log the user’s permissions per surface; don’t reuse tokens across contexts.

Go deeper with these playbooks

• Alexa.com is Live: 72‑Hour Founder Playbook
• How to Rank on Alexa.com, Qira, and Desk Companions (7‑Day Plan)
• Where to Build First After CES 2026

Need this wired by Monday?

HireNinja can ship your Action API, structured data, and assistant‑ready checkout in 48–72 hours—plus a consent‑first logging layer and dashboards for attribution.

• Talk to an AI Ninja
• See pricing and get started

Prefer to DIY? Start with the API tutorial above, then layer on our AASO guide.