Alexa is getting a big makeover for the ChatGPT era.
Amazon announced a new premium tier for its voice assistant called Alexa+, which will offer a slew of new generative AI-powered capabilities, at a flashy event in Manhattan this week. The long-awaited upgrade will make Alexa chattier, better at following complex instructions, and more integrated with services like food delivery apps or news publishers, Amazon execs said.
“It's a complete re-architecture that has never been done at this scale, and it's the largest integration of services, agentic capabilities and LLMs that we know of anywhere,” Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, said at the event.
Ever since ChatGPT redefined what an AI chatbot could be more than two years ago, Amazon’s Alexa has suffered by comparison. Panos Panoy, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services, conceded the current Alexa too often mishears, misunderstands, or forces users into “Alexa speak,” an unnatural style of speech adapted to the system’s shortcomings.
Panoy framed generative AI infusion as finally delivering on the original vision for Alexa. “Until right this moment, we have been limited by the technology,” he said.
Agent Alexa: The new rollout consists of much more than “taking an LLM and jacking it into the original Alexa,” as Rausch put it.
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For one, Alexa+ spans groups of systems and capabilities Amazon refers to as “experts.” They specialize in tasks like booking reservations, ordering groceries, or monitoring your home with connected devices–all presumably performed more conversationally and adeptly than current Alexa integrations. These experts draw on “tens of thousands” of integrations from partners ranging from smart-home manufacturers and ticketing services to food delivery apps and news publishers.
It also allows for complex agentic capabilities in a self-directed manner, like following a sequence of tasks to locate a kitchen repair service and schedule an appointment to fix an oven, Rausch said. Execs also demonstrated how Alexa+ might ingest documents like a recipe, then answer specific questions about its contents.
Finally fulfilled? Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Thomas Husson said in a research note that Amazon has mostly failed at turning voice into an effective commerce channel in the decade since its inception. Plenty of polls have shown people have mostly used Alexa for simple tasks like checking the weather or playing music.
“Fast forward 10 years, it is about time Amazon transforms Alexa and Echo into a truly smart and useful assistant,” Husson said.
Alexa+ will be free for Prime members or $19.99 a month otherwise. It will begin rolling out next month.