Say hello to Alexa+. Photo: Amazon.
At an event last night, Amazon unveiled its new version of Alexa, which the company calls Alexa+ and comes powered by generative AI.
Panos Panay, SVP of Devices & Services at Amazon (yes, he's the same exec who was formerly a Microsoft EVP and Chief Product Officer and was instrumental in bringing about the Surface lineup) said that this new Alexa+ is conversational, smarter, and personalised, and helps you get things done:
She keeps you entertained, helps you learn, keeps you organised, summarises complex topics, and can converse about virtually anything. Alexa+ can manage and protect your home, make reservations, and help you track, discover, and enjoy new artists. She can also help you search, find or buy virtually any item online, and make useful suggestions based on your interests.
According to Panay, while Alexa+ will know what you’ve bought, what you’ve listened to, the videos you’ve watched, the address you ship things to, and how you like to pay, it can also tailor responses based on the information you’ve shared.
Photo: Amazon.
For example, suppose you’ve shared your family’s health and dietary preferences and you ask it to plan a dinner. In that case, Alexa+ can remember that you love pizza, your daughter is vegetarian, and your partner is gluten-free, to suggest a recipe or restaurant.
It can also still serve as a voice-controlled hub for all of your smart home devices such as smart speakers that can provide answers to user questions, play music, set timers and link to internet-connected devices so that, for instance, a light can be turned on with just voice prompts. It can even respond to multiple prompts and perform them in sequence.
A list of the apps that Alexa+ can work with. Photo: Amazon.
Daniel Rausch, vice president for Alexa and Echo, shared how Alexa+ used Amazon Bedrock to access LLMs like Amazon Nova, Anthropic’s Claude, and used partnerships with major news organisations including Associated Press, Reuters, TIME, USA TODAY, Politico and many others, to build out Alexa+’s deep knowledge foundation so it can provide quick, accurate responses across a variety of topics, from financial markets to sports statistics.
Unfortunately, it looks like we may not be able to use all of Alexa+’s abilities as some look to be very localised to the United States (U.S.). For example, through Experts, deep knowledge integration, and agentic capabilities, Alexa+ will work behind the scenes to seamlessly coordinate multiple services to complete tasks on your behalf. Rausch highlighted an example that involved getting recommendations for a home maintenance provider who could fix an oven, contacting them to book a repair for you, and sending the request to the provider via Thumbtack to complete the service appointment booking behind the scenes. It can also make a dinner reservation for two via OpenTable to book an Uber for your friend to meet you at lunch, and then texting them your plans.
The devices that can use Alexa+. Photo: Amazon.
With some 500 million Alexa-capable devices in consumer hands already, Panay said that Alexa+ will first start rolling out in the U.S. over the next few weeks during an early access period, and subsequently in waves over the coming months. Amazon will prioritise the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 devices during this period. Those who want to place their name on the list to be considered for early access can do so here.
Alexa+ is free for Amazon Prime members and is priced at US$19.99 a month for non-Prime users. We will update this article with local pricing details when we have more information.
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