Amazon's Alexa+ Brings Generative AI, Offering Personalized Assistance and Automation

Amazon has released a major update to its Alexa voice assistant, incorporating generative artificial intelligence to make it more conversational and capable.  The upgraded service, Alexa+, aims to provide a more personalized experience by understanding user preferences, schedules, smart home setups, and frequently used apps.  

Alexa+ will be free for Amazon Prime members and cost $19.99 per month for non-Prime users.  The rollout begins in March and will gradually reach additional subscribers.  The AI-powered assistant can remember customer preferences, such as dietary restrictions, and help with things like making restaurant reservations, sending reminders, and checking papers.  In addition, it works with Ring doorbells to display camera recordings.  

Internally dubbed "Banyan", the makeover symbolizes Amazon’s effort to stay up with Apple’s Siri and Google’s AI-powered Assistant, both of which have gotten substantial enhancements.  Alexa+, enhanced by AI startup Anthropic's Claude, will be able to manage several requests in sequence and even do tasks without direct user inputs, which is an upgrade over the present system.  

With 500 million Alexa-compatible devices in use, Amazon sees both a revenue opportunity and a risk if the service fails to deliver on expectations.  The business has spent $8 billion in Anthropic and will employ its AI Bedrock to ensure Alexa+ uses the optimal model for each task.  

 Following the announcement, Amazon shares rose 1.7%.

This article is based on information from Business Line