Amazon's Alexa has undergone its biggest overhaul since it debuted over a decade ago.
On Wednesday, Amazon said it was offering Alexa a new brain powered by generative artificial intelligence. An update called Alexa+ is set up to help Virtual Assistant recommends booking concert tickets, adjusting calendars, and delivering food. Alexa+ is included with customers who either spend $19.99 a month or pay for Amazon's Prime Membership Program. This is $14.99 a month. It will start to unfold next month.
“Up to this moment, at this moment, we have been limited by technology,” Panos Panay, head of devices at Amazon, told a media event. “Alexa+ is a reliable assistant who can help you do your life and your home.”
With the changes, Amazon aims to keep up with the generated AI for everyday users. Although the Seattle company has made up for the loss of time in AI products and services it sells to businesses and other organizations over the past few months, the grip of consumer AI products has become narrower. The Alexa upgrade, first teased in 2023, is Amazon's biggest bet on being a power for consumer AI
This move also serves as an opportunity to restart Alexa. This is perceived to have fallen behind other virtual assistants. According to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Alexa's growth in the US has generally stagnated in recent years, with people relying on their assistants for only a few key tasks, such as setting timers, alarms, playing music, and asking questions about weather and sports scores.
At Wednesday's event, Panay and other Amazon executives showed how Alexa+ could do those things in a more personalized way. They said Alexa+ could identify who is talking and know who is interested in and what kind of person they like, whether it's their favorite sports team, musicians, food, etc. Also, a device equipped with Alexa+ suggested restaurants, book Opentable reservations, order Uber, and send calendar invitations.
Alexa, the creator of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, made her debut in 2014 and surprised people with her ability to receive verbal demands and translate them into actions. It has become a symbol of Amazon's innovation. For many years, the company has highlighted devices connected to Alexa, including echo speakers, connected microwaves, wall clocks, and teddy bears on both sides.
But there have been wild experiments since Bezos stepped down as Amazon's CEO in 2021 and handed over the company to longtime executive Andy Jassie. Jassy was curtailed at Amazon's expense, killing projects that appear to be overseeing obvious outlook and layoffs. In 2023, he hired Microsoft executive Panay to oversee the device.
Panay's greatest responsibility was to bring generative AI to ALEXA and unlock all the intimate assistant promises that Amazon had long imagined. Shortly after Panay began, Amazon said it was rebuilding Alexa's brain with technology that supported Openai's ChatGpt chatbot.
“All re-records of Alexa happened,” Panay said Wednesday.
When Amazon worked on an update to Alexa, its competitors jumped over it. For example, ChatGpt can hold extended, detailed conversations, and some people develop emotional and even sexual relationships with AI personas.
(New York Times sued Openai and its partner Microsoft, alleging that it was copyright infringed on news content related to AI systems. The company denied the claim.)
It was not easy to bring generated AI into Alexa. Because virtual assistants face challenges that chatbots don't. Alexa, for example, may serve multiple users in the home, so you need to distinguish who is speaking and personalize your response.
Amazon also wants Alexa to be at the heart of people's lives and connect to multiple smart devices and services, but this is complicated. You need to integrate multiple AI systems, including those built by Amazon and startups, and interact with devices such as smart bulbs and apps, including Ticketmasters. Amazon has also even trained it to give Alexa+ personality and make it interesting along with the comedian.
“It was too late in the fall,” Panay said in an interview.
Generated AI is also plagued when “hastisation” or when AI systems provide misinformation. As Alexa interacts with the real world where he plays songs, orders products and turns off alarms, Panay said that Alexa needs to make sure things get right.
He said he believes Alexa+ is finally fast and accurate. “I think people will fall in love with it soon,” he said.
