ASK CLI just deploys Lambda functions using a standard default configuration. In order to change these settings, you have to go in the Lambda function that was created and customize its configuration to your needs, causing a revision id mismatch and ultimately requiring to force deploy the subsequent skill update.

Would it possible to add custom Lambda function configuration settings, such as the basic settings (memory, timeout & description), role execution policy and environment variables, to the ask configuration file, potentially using part of the AWS CLI Lambda create function JSON skeleton object?

{
"FunctionName": "<functionName>",
"Runtime": "nodejs8.10",
"Role": "<role>",
"Handler": "index.js",
"Description": "<description>",
"Timeout": <timeout>,
"MemorySize": <memorySize>,
"Environment": {
"Variables": {
"<key1>": "<value1>",
...
}
}
}