Amazon Unveils Alexa+, An AI-Powered Upgrade to Compete in the Virtual Assistant Race
New York CNN — Amazon has launched Alexa+, a significant upgrade to its flagship voice assistant, Alexa, designed to bring the platform into the artificial intelligence era. Announced Wednesday, the updated service aims to provide a more conversational and personalized experience for users.
Alexa+ can now incorporate a user’s personal preferences into its responses and handle tasks on their behalf, such as booking concert tickets, according to Amazon. The service is priced at $19.99 per month but will be available for free to Amazon Prime members, with early access beginning next month.
This move is Amazon’s response to the growing popularity of AI-infused virtual assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which have gained traction since 2022. Like its rivals, Amazon is focused on building what they believe will be the next generation of AI chatbots: AI agents. These agents are designed to perform actions for the user, from online shopping to managing real-world tasks such as returning a package or scheduling a home repair.
What Alexa+ Offers
Amazon is emphasizing Alexa+’s ability to integrate a user’s personal context, including the apps and services they use. This is intended to set Alexa+ apart from chatbots like ChatGPT. Apple and Google are also adopting this approach with their virtual assistants.
In a preview video released by Amazon, Alexa+ demonstrated its ability to perform tasks such as telling a user how many books they’ve read during the year, reserving their usual dinner spot, or notifying them when concert tickets for their favorite artist become available. The assistant uses a user’s history and data across various apps, devices, and services, and it can remember preferences, the company says.
Alexa+ should also be able to respond to questions about a user’s surroundings. Panos Panay, head of devices at Amazon, used an Echo Show device, the version of the Echo with a camera, to ask Alexa about the crowd’s enthusiasm at the event. The device responded, “From what I can see, those 250 folks look pretty fired up.”
Panay also noted that Alexa+ would better understand context and natural language, such as responding to a command like “play music but don’t wake the baby.” Panay attributed the revamp to generative AI and large language models, which provide the foundation for AI applications such as ChatGPT. “While the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment, we have been limited by the technology,” Panay said, reinforcing that Alexa has been in development for some time.
Competing with Apple and Google
This strategy mirrors the approaches taken by Apple and Google. Apple is updating Siri with the ability to use personal data to answer questions, and Google aims for its Gemini assistant to function as an agent capable of carrying out tasks on behalf of the user. While Amazon’s approach isn’t unique, it does represent a much-needed update that could bring its decade-old assistant up to date with its competitors.
Panay indicated that Alexa+ has been programmed to understand a user’s tone and environment to adapt its responses accordingly.
Boosting Amazon’s Struggling Echo Business
The original Amazon Echo, launched in 2014, was a surprising success. However, Amazon has faced significant challenges in monetizing its hardware division. The company’s business model for the Echo stalled, as it hoped that people would use the device to increase their Amazon purchases. However, consumers largely used the Echo for tasks like setting alarms and listening to music rather than shopping on Amazon, and Amazon has lost billions of dollars on the Echo business, according to The Wall Street Journal.
With Alexa+, Amazon wants to change this trend, as generative AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT began to attract attention in late 2022 and threaten the voice assistants that already existed. But one potential advantage is the way Alexa already connects with the company’s hardware and services, such as Fire TVs and Ring cameras. Alexa+ will let users ask what happened around the house while they weren’t home, or whether the dog had been walked, for instance. Furthermore, the success of Alexa+ could also encourage more consumers to subscribe to Amazon’s $15-per-month Prime service.
Amazon made the announcement in New York City, where it previewed the long-awaited update back in 2023.
