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CNN
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Alexa+, Amazon’s revamped version of Alexa was unveiled Wednesday, bringing the popular voice assistant into the artificial intelligence era.
The new Alexa is more conversational, can incorporate a user’s personal preferences into answers, and can handle certain tasks on someone’s behalf, like booking concert tickets, Amazon says. The service costs $19.99 per month but will be free for Amazon Prime members, with early access coming next month.
The new Alexa is Amazon’s effort to compete with the wave of AI-infused virtual assistants that have grown in popularity since 2022, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Amazon, like its rivals, is racing to build what tech giants believe will be the next iteration of AI chatbots: AI agents. Unlike simple chatbots, tech companies promise these agents will be able to take action for you, such as shopping or even handling real-world tasks – like returning a package you ordered online or calling someone to repair your stove.
Alexa+ is a big part of Amazon’s attempt to do just that – in addition to upgrading Alexa for the current chatbot era.
Amazon is touting Alexa’s new ability to incorporate a user’s personal context, like the apps and services they use, as being a key differentiator compared to chatbots like ChatGPT. Apple and Google, however are taking a similar approach with their own virtual assistants.
In a preview video, the company showed Alexa+ handling tasks such as telling a user how many books they’ve read this year, reserve their usual Friday night dinner spot, or alert them when concert tickets for their favorite artist are available.
It does this by using someone’s personal history and data across apps, devices and services, and can remember a user’s preferences, the company says. Alexa
Alexa+ will also be able to answer questions about a user’s surroundings. Using an Echo Show device, which is the tablet-like version of the Echo with a camera, Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of devices, asked Alexa whether the crowd at the event “looked pumped” after pointing the camera at the audience. “From what I can see, those 250 folks look pretty fired up,” it replied.
Alexa+ should also be better at understand context and more natural language, according to Panay. For example, instead of asking Alexa to lower the music volume, you could say something like “play music but don’t wake the baby.”
Panay attributed Alexa’s revamp to relatively new technologies like generative AI and large language models, both of which provide the foundation for popular AI apps like ChatGPT.
“While the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment, we have been limited by the technology,” Panay said.
It’s similar to the approach Apple and Google are taking with their respective virtual assistants. Apple, for example, is updating Siri with the ability to answer questions based on personal data, while Google wants its Gemini assistant to function as an agent that can handle tasks on your behalf. Amazon’s approach isn’t unique, but it’s a much-needed upgrade that could bring its decade-old assistant up to date with rivals.
Panay also said that Alexa+ has been trained to understand a user’s tone and environment to adapt its response accordingly.
Amazon’s original Echo was a surprising success when it debuted in 2014. But in the decade since Alexa arrived in our living rooms, Amazon has struggled to monetize its hardware division, even as its bet on cheap hardware helped make Alexa the dominant voice assistant.
And Amazon’s business model for the Echo stalled as well, as the company hoped people would use the device to increase their Amazon purchases. But consumers primarily ended up using the Echo for tasks like setting alarms and listening to music rather than Amazon shopping, and Amazon has reportedly lost billions of dollars on its Echo business, according to The Wall Street Journal. With Alexa+, Amazon is clearly hoping that will change.
At the same time, generative AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT began to take the spotlight in late 2022, threatening the voice assistants of yesteryear like Alexa and the Google Assistant.
But one potential advantage is the way Alexa already integrates with the company’s devices and services, like Fire TVs and Ring cameras. Users will be able to ask Alexa about what happened around the house while they weren’t home, or if anyone took the dog out. Plus, if successful, Alexa+ could also incentivize more consumers to sign up for Amazon’s lucrative $15-per-month Prime service.
Amazon, which previewed the long-awaited update in 2023, made the announcement during an event in New York City.
This story has been updated with additional information and context.