Amazon Announces Alexa+ and New Smart Home Innovations
At its February 26, 2025, Devices & Services event, Amazon unveiled significant updates to its Alexa ecosystem, highlighting a new generation of the voice assistant powered by generative AI called Alexa+. The event also showcased new Echo devices and enhanced smart home integration features.
Senior Vice President of Amazon Devices & Services, Panos Panay, described Alexa+ as “that trusted assistant that can help you conduct your life and your home.”
Alexa+ Launches with Enhanced Capabilities
Alexa+ promises to simplify complex tasks and make everyday life easier for customers. The service, priced at $19.99 per month, is offered free to Amazon Prime members. It will initially roll out in the U.S. within the next few weeks, with broader availability in the coming months.
Alexa+ will first be available on Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 devices. If you don’t have one of these devices yet, you can buy one today to get early access to Alexa+ as it becomes available.
Key Features and Technical Advancements
Daniel Rausch, Vice President for Alexa and Echo, presented the technical architecture behind Alexa+. The system leverages Amazon Bedrock to access state-of-the-art Large Language Models (LLMs), including Amazon’s Nova models and those from partner Anthropic. Alexa+ employs a model-agnostic system, selecting the optimal model for any given task. The system leverages a deep knowledge foundation supported by major news organizations.
Expert systems allow Alexa+ to deliver more natural and capable assistance.
Alexa+ connects to thousands of services and devices, coordinating multiple actions seamlessly, such as making dinner reservations or booking rides. The voice assistant can also help manage your calendar, recall details from documents, and extract information from emails.
New Interactive Features for Amazon Kids+
Amazon is also expanding Alexa’s capabilities for families and children. New features for Amazon Kids+ subscribers, “Stories with Alexa” and “Explore with Alexa,” aim to encourage children’s curiosity and creativity.
Enhanced Smart Home Integration
Alexa+ provides seamless integration with various Alexa-enabled devices. Users can now set up complex Routines with voice commands, discover new music by casual conversation, easily move music between rooms, and jump to specific scenes on Prime Video.
With their Ring subscription, users can also get summaries of detected camera events and view relevant footage, controlling their smart home with spoken commands.
New Echo Show Devices
Amazon also introduced the all-new Echo Show 21, its largest smart display to date, and the Echo Show 15. These devices are designed to blend into the home environment and simplify organizing daily life.
AI Innovation and the Future of Alexa
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy emphasized the company’s commitment to using AI to solve customer problems, stating that “virtually every customer experience that we all know of will be reinvented using generative AI.”
Panos Panay reflected on Alexa’s impact over the last decade, noting its evolution from a new way of interacting with technology to a cornerstone of the smart home. “While the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and incredibly compelling, right until this moment, we have been limited by technology,”
Alexa+ aims to transform user experience through natural conversations, personalization, and the ability to get things done. It offers a redesigned user interface on Echo Show devices, including an adaptive display and a “For You” panel.
With these advancements, Amazon aims to enhance customers’ lives through improved voice experiences and smart home integration.
