Amazon announced a major upgrade to its Alexa experience, dubbed Alexa+, at an event in New York on Wednesday. The upgrade, powered by generative AI technologies, represents a significant overhaul of the AI assistant, according to Panos Panay, Amazon’s devices and services chief.
“While the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment — right this moment — we have been limited by the technology,” Panay stated. “An AI chatbot on its own doesn’t get us to our vision of Alexa.”
The upgraded Alexa aims for deeper integration and a more intuitive user experience. Amazon claims the new Alexa can access and utilize information from a customer’s Amazon account to answer questions such as, “How many books have I read this year?” It can also proactively notify users of events, such as new concert ticket releases, and assist with tasks like making dinner reservations. “The new Alexa knows almost [everything] in your life — your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected [to and] the entertainment you [enjoy],” Panay said.
The new version also incorporates visual understanding, allowing it to process video feeds via device cameras and respond to questions based on the footage. Panay highlighted Alexa’s ability to understand tone and environmental context, adjusting responses accordingly. “She’s been trained in a couple of different ways, from EQ to humor to understanding,” he added. “She understands I’m a little bit nervous, she’s trying to calm me.”
In addition to more conventional functions like creating quizzes from study materials and generating travel itineraries, Alexa+ can answer more complex queries, like “What’s the best pizza nearby?” Such responses are informed by Alexa’s stored preferences. Moreover, Alexa+ provides a personalized visual experience on Amazon’s Echo Show devices, with dynamic photo galleries and a “For You” panel that presents timely updates and widgets for smart home control.
As expected, the new Alexa is tightly integrated with Amazon’s smart home ecosystem. Users can command Alexa to play music from Amazon Music on connected devices, or control Fire TV content, skipping to specific scenes in movies or TV shows. It can also summarize footage from Ring security cameras.
“She’s your virtual security guard,” Panay said, emphasizing the upgrade’s security features.
Amazon positions the new Alexa not just as a general-purpose assistant, but also as a powerful productivity tool. Users will be able to upload files, documents, and emails, allowing Alexa to reference and parse this information in the future. A user could say something like, “I forwarded a work schedule, are there any interesting events I need to be aware of?,” and Alexa will highlight key items in the document. The company has yet to specify the exact process for file uploads.
Beyond reading files, Alexa+ can take actions based on their content. For example, it can add text from a document to a calendar or create reminders based on information in emails. Given artificial intelligence’s propensity for occasional errors, Amazon emphasizes the accuracy and reliability of Alexa+, although real-world performance will be subject to testing when the new experience launches later this year.
