Amazon has introduced Alexa+, a new AI-powered version of its digital assistant, featuring enhanced natural language processing, personalized interactions, and improved smart home integration.
Amazon’s revamped service is powered by generative AI, according to Panos Panay, the company’s senior vice president of devices and services, who announced it on stage at an event in New York.
The service will cost $19.99 per month but is free for Amazon Prime members.
“Every once in a while, a technology comes around and it changes everything,” Panay said. ”[Large language models] enter the stage and fundamentally change the way we think about AI … It’s shaken up everything.”
Alexa+ can handle tasks like purchasing concert tickets, ordering groceries, booking dinner reservations, and providing personalized recipe suggestions. It can also read study guides and quiz users, organize handwritten documents, and recall information from them.
“She’ll learn the rhythm of your life and proactively take action with you,” Panay said.
Alexa+ will be compatible with “almost every” Alexa device ever released, according to Panay.
However, Amazon’s demonstrations of the service were all conducted on the Echo Show, its voice-controlled touchscreen display.
Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, said on stage that Alexa has been completely re-architected as part of the upgrade.
“It is not as easy as taking an LLM and jacking it into the original Alexa,” Rausch said.
Alexa+ leverages a “broad range of state-of-the-art” training models from multiple providers, according to Rausch.
