Amazon unveiled a significant upgrade to its Alexa voice assistant on Wednesday, integrating generative artificial intelligence for the first major overhaul in over a decade. This move represents a considerable investment by Amazon, which has poured billions of dollars into Alexa since its 2014 launch, aiming to integrate the service into various devices and boost sales on its primary e-commerce platform.
“Alexa knows almost every instrument in your life, your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected to, the entertainment you love and use many of the apps you use, a lot of the services you need,” said Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices and services, at a launch event in New York.
The new AI-enhanced service, named Alexa+, mirrors the naming conventions of premium tiers in many tech and streaming services, Panay noted. Available as of Wednesday, Alexa+ is free for Amazon Prime members and priced at $19.99 per month for non-Prime users, with initial availability limited to certain users in March and broader rollout planned over time.
During a demonstration, Panay showed how Alexa can store customer preferences—such as dietary restrictions and food preferences—and use them to make dinner reservations, send scheduled texts, and set reminders. Additionally, the service will integrate with Amazon products like Ring doorbells to display camera recordings.
Alexa director Mara Segal highlighted the service’s ability to review documents, such as homeowners association contracts, to inform residents about allowed actions like solar panel installations.
The event also revealed a formerly secret project, internally referred to as “Banyan,” with the goal of making Alexa more conversational. Generative AI, which forms the backbone of the upgrade, can learn from data and improve over time.
While Alexa launched three years after Apple’s Siri, the voice assistant helped popularize voice-controlled technology. However, the lack of significant updates in recent years led to a decline in consumer usage, particularly amid advancements in AI technology.
With some 500 million Alexa-compatible devices already in use, according to Amazon, the revamp represents a significant opportunity for the Seattle-based company, but also a financial risk if it doesn’t meet expectations.
The new Alexa AI service will be capable of handling multiple sequenced prompts and acting as an “agent,” performing tasks on behalf of users without requiring their direct involvement. This is a departure from the current version, which generally responds to a single request at a time.
Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo, acknowledged the contribution of AI startup Anthropic in building Alexa+, confirming that Anthropic’s Claude played a major role in underpinning the new service. The company’s shares rose approximately 2% to $217.02 following the announcement.
