Amazon has finally taken the wraps off of the all-new, AI-powered Alexa+, as the company hopes to challenge AI leaders and breathe new life into Alexa.

Alexa was one of the earliest, and best, virtual assistants for some time, but the platform has fallen woefully behind AI-powered rivals. Amazon has been working for some time to revamp Alexa, but the company has reportedly struggled to meat its goals.

The company has finally unveiled the result of its work, with Panos Panay, SVP of Devices & Services, announcing the new service.

Today, we’re excited to introduce Alexa+, our next-generation assistant powered by generative AI. Alexa+ is more conversational, smarter, personalized—and she helps you get things done. She keeps you entertained, helps you learn, keeps you organized, summarizes 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. Alexa+ does all this and more—all you have to do is ask.

Panay goes on to say that Alexa+ transcends anything the original Alexa was capable of, feeling more like a friend than a virtual assistant.

Conversations with Alexa+ feel expansive and natural. Whether you’re speaking in half-formed thoughts, using colloquial expressions, or exploring complex ideas, Alexa+ understands what you mean, and responds like a trusted assistant. It feels less like interacting with technology, and more like engaging with an insightful friend.

Alexa+ integrates powerful large language models and is designed to act on what customers want.

At the foundation of Alexa’s state-of-the-art architecture are powerful large language models (LLMs) available on Amazon Bedrock, but that’s just the start. Alexa+ is designed to take action, and is able to orchestrate across tens of thousands of services and devices—which, to our knowledge, has never been done at this scale. To achieve this, we created a concept called “experts”—groups of systems, capabilities, APIs, and instructions that accomplish specific types of tasks for customers.

With these experts, Alexa+ can control your smart home with products from Philips Hue, Roborock, and more; make reservations or appointments with OpenTable and Vagaro; explore discographies and play music from providers including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and iHeartRadio; order groceries from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, or delivery from Grubhub and Uber Eats; remind you when tickets go on sale on Ticketmaster; and use Ring to alert you if someone is approaching your house.

Privacy

Depending on your position on privacy, and how much Big Tech companies know about you, Panay’s next statement is either a major selling point or a major point of concern.

The new Alexa is highly personalized—and gives you opportunities to personalize further. She knows 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—but you can also ask her to remember things that will make the experience more useful for you. You can tell her things like family recipes, important dates, facts, dietary preferences, and more—and she can apply that knowledge to take useful action. For example, if you are planning a dinner for the family, Alexa+ can remember that you love pizza, your daughter is vegetarian, and your partner is gluten-free, to suggest a recipe or restaurant.

Similarly, Alexa+ will learn your habits and proactively make suggestions.

The new Alexa is like having an assistant available to help any time you want—she’s there when you need her, and disappears when you don’t. Alexa+ is also proactive when it’s important—like suggesting you start your commute early when there’s heavy traffic, or telling you a gift you wanted to buy is on sale.

There are over 600 million Alexa devices out there today, which customers already use to play music, watch videos, and manage their smart homes. All these capabilities are meaningfully better with Alexa+, and come together to create a much smarter and more capable home experience. For example, you could be eating dinner in the kitchen and tell Alexa you want to watch The Boys on your Fire TV in the living room so she can set it up for you there; you can move music to different speakers around your home; and you can use Ring to see if your package has been delivered or if anyone has walked the dog.

The AI assistant will also be available on major platforms, including iOS, Android, the web, and some vehicles. On iOS and Android, Alexa+ will be available as a standalone app.

Cost

Rumors surfaced in mid-2024 that Amazon was likely going to charge $5 to $10 per month for the service, one of many initiatives under CEO Andy Jassy designed to cut costs and improve profitability. It turns out, Amazon is charging substantially more, although Prime members will have access for free.

Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month, but all Amazon Prime members will get it for free. Alexa+ is the newest Prime benefit, building on the tremendous value members were already enjoying, including record-fast delivery speeds and free delivery on more than 300 million items—tens of millions which can be delivered the same or next day—exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day, entertainment like Prime Video and Amazon Music, as well as savings on groceries, prescription medication, gas, and Grubhub+. Prime is a better value than ever.

Conclusion

While Amazon is certainly playing catch-up to Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Perplexity AI, and others, the company also has the benefit of being ideally positioned to make up for lost time. Amazon’s customers already provide the company with gargantuan quantities of data, which is the lifeblood of AI training and development. That data gives Alexa+ a huge advantage over rivals when it comes to being useful in day-to-day life. At the same time, Amazon’s decision to charge for Alexa+ could deter adoption for non-Prime users

Similarly, the privacy-conscious may be averse to the idea of giving Amazon even more data, despite the company’s assurance that Alexa+ is built with privacy in mind. Amazon owns Ring, and Ring suffered a string of embarrassments as a result of woefully inadequate privacy and security measures.

Ultimately, however, if there’s any company that can come from behind and make AI useful, Amazon is certainly in the best position to do so.