Amazon’s wiser Alexa has arrived. The company in a big reveal has lifted the veil on Alexa+- an AI assistant designed with large language models (LLMs) and what Amazon refers to as “agentic capabilities.”
Amazon explains that Alexa+ is made to be more intuitive and can comprehend intricate ideas, colloquial terms, and incomplete questions, much like interacting with a good friend instead of a device.
“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.,” said Amazon in its announcement.
Alexa+ takes cues from your previous interactions, purchases, and viewing habits, and even recalls your decisions. For example, it can remember eating habits and offer recipes according to family members’ individual requirements, such as a gluten-free or vegetarian meal.
Whereas Alexa+ presents a broad feature set, there is fierce competition from the AI assistant rivals. Apple’s Siri, for example, still maintains dominance in the Apple ecosystem and provides instant compatibility with iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Siri remains less conversational than Alexa, which has always been touted as particularly effective at voice conversations.
Another contender, Google Assistant, has the advantage of Google’s search function, which makes it particularly useful for responding to questions and browsing the web. Google Assistant is also integrated into many devices and is especially prized for its use of Google’s extensive knowledge base.
Other players, including Samsung’s Bixby, have entered the fray, with Bixby emphasizing device integration and voice commands for Samsung devices.
Pricing and availability
Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month, although Amazon Prime subscribers can use it for free as part of their membership. The assistant will roll out in the U.S. in stages throughout the next few months, with early access to users of specific Echo Show devices, such as Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. Beyond being accessible on Echo devices, Alexa+ will also be available through a new smartphone app (on the Apple App Store and Google Play) and a web-based experience on Alexa.com.
