Amazon’s AI-powered Alexa promises to be revamped for monthly fee

By HALELUYA HADERO and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a generative-AI infused Alexa that it says will allow the popular voice assistant to have more personality, check a user’s tone and even plan romantic dates.

But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls “Alexa+”. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks.

At a media event held in New York City, Amazon executives showed off the update to the ten-year old digital assistant with the new features aimed at boosting sales and interactions with Alexa-enabled devices.

The company says Alexa+ is able to have conversations with a more natural, humanlike flow and can learn more about a user — such as dietary preferences or allergies — the more it’s used.

“I’m not just an assistant, I’m your new best friend in the digital world,” Alexa+ said during an onstage demo on Wednesday.

At the event, Panos Panay, Amazon’s vice president of devices & services, listed off the other things the voice assistant can now do, such as create study plans, text a babysitter and call an Uber ride for a friend. He and other company executives also said Alexa can fetch videos from Ring cameras — such as checking whether a user’s dog was walked that day — and is able to remember handwritten recipes, emails and other documents shared with it.

“She’s smarter than she’s ever been before, but she’s also approachable,” Panay said.

Alexa is built into products such as smart speakers, Amazon’s Fire TVs and earbuds. The Seattle-based tech giant launched its popular voice assistant in 2014 alongside its first Echo device, which responds to voice commands. Panay said Amazon has sold more than 600 million Alexa-enabled devices and that user engagement grew 20% last year compared to 2023. Some market estimates have shown Alexa holds the largest market share among voice assistants.

The revamped Alexa uses large language models, including some developed by Amazon and others by Anthropic, the generative AI startup the tech giant has poured billions into. Alexa+ has a “model-agnostic system,” allowing it to select the best AI model for the tasks it wants to complete, said Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa and Echo.

Amazon says it will kick off “early access” of Alexa+, currently only available in English, in the U.S. next month — starting with users who own or purchase some of its newest Echo Show devices, which feature onscreen displays of Alexa responses. After opting in, those eligible users will then see Alexa+ start working across compatible devices, as well as on their web browser and app, the company said. Amazon will later roll out the update in “waves” internationally and to more devices. Some of the new features are only built for products with screens.

Alexa+ will not reach certain older Echo models — but Amazon says owners of those devices can continue to use the original assistant. And users who simply prefer using the original Alexa can continue doing so, per a FAQ from the company.

Amazon’s announcement came more than a year after the company teased an early version of an AI-infused Alexa at a media event held to show off new devices. At the time, Amazon had said it was working on a “speech-to-speech” model that would allow Alexa to exhibit humanlike attributes, such as laughter and phrases like “uh-huh” during conversations.

During the demo on Wednesday, Amazon highlighted features it had previously kept under lid. In one exchange, Panay showed the new Alexa a video of the crowd in the room to test a feature that apparently allows it to sense the surrounding mood. Panay asked Alexa+ if the crowed “looked pumped” to which it responded the room full of journalists were “paying attention to you and excited.”