Amazon's new AI-powered Alexa promises to be your 'best friend in a digital world' for a monthly fee

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon on Wednesday unveiled a generative-AI infused Alexa that it says will allow the popular voice assistant to have more personality, check a user’s tone and even plan romantic dates.

But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls “Alexa+”. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks.

At a media event held in New York City, Amazon executives showed off the update to the ten-year old digital assistant with the new features aimed at boosting sales and interactions with Alexa-enabled devices.

The company says Alexa+ is able to have conversations with a more natural, humanlike flow and can learn more about a user — such as dietary preferences or allergies — the more it’s used.

“I’m not just an assistant, I’m your new best friend in the digital world,” Alexa+ said during an onstage demo on Wednesday.

At the event, Panos Panay, Amazon’s vice president of devices & services, listed off the other things the voice assistant can now do, such as create study plans, text a babysitter and call an Uber ride for a friend. He and other company executives also said Alexa can fetch videos from Ring cameras — such as checking whether a user's dog was walked that day — and is able to remember handwritten recipes, emails and other documents shared with it.

“She’s smarter than she’s ever been before, but she’s also approachable,” Panay said.

Alexa is built into products such as smart speakers, Amazon’s Fire TVs and earbuds. The Seattle-based tech giant launched its popular voice assistant in 2014 alongside its first Echo device, which responds to voice commands. Panay said Amazon has sold more than 600 million Alexa-enabled devices and that user engagement grew 20% last year compared to 2023. Some market estimates have shown Alexa holds the largest market share among voice assistants.

The revamped Alexa uses large language models, including some developed by Amazon and others by Anthropic, the generative AI startup the tech giant has poured billions into. Alexa+ has a “model-agnostic system,” allowing it to select the best AI model for the tasks it wants to complete, said Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa and Echo.

Amazon says it will start rolling out “early access” to Alexa+ in the U.S. next month. It will then roll it out “in waves” internationally, starting with certain Echo devices. The upgraded assistant will be available across Alexa-supported devices, but some features are only built for products with screens.

Amazon’s announcement came more than a year after the company teased an early version of an AI-infused Alexa at a media event held to show off new devices. At the time, Amazon had said it was working on a “speech-to-speech” model that would allow Alexa to exhibit humanlike attributes, such as laughter and phrases like “uh-huh” during conversations.

During the demo on Wednesday, Amazon highlighted features it had previously kept under lid. In one exchange, Panay showed Alexa a video of the crowd in the room to test a feature that apparently allows it to sense the surrounding mood. Panay asked Alexa if the crowed “looked pumped” to which it responded the room full of journalists were “paying attention to you and excited.”

Like its predecessor, Alexa+ is enabled when users say the voice assistant's name — but executives on Wednesday said users now only have to say that wake word once before having a prolonged, back and forth exchange. Still, demonstrators would occasionally say “Alexa” again if it seemed like the voice assistant didn't catch something.

Amazon competes in the smart speaker market with other tech giants, including Apple and Google.

Though it has had success in selling devices, the company’s other goal — driving Amazon purchases through Alexa — has been more challenging to pull off. Amazon has said Alexa customers have used their device to shop. However, many rely on it mostly for menial tasks, such as playing music, asking questions or checking the weather.

A subscription fee for the revamped Alexa will allow the company to offset costs related to AI development and help its devices operations become more profitable.