Amazon has been centered on bringing generative AI to Alexa for the previous few years, hitting a number of delays in launching new options that the corporate first introduced in September 2023. The delayed Alexa 2.0 was poised for a 2025 launch, and Amazon held a late February occasion the place it made huge bulletins for the bogus intelligence-powered digital assistant.
Amid rumors of Alexa 2.0 shortcomings, Amazon skipped its 2024 Gadgets and Companies occasion, the place the corporate usually pronounces new Alexa options and {hardware} units. As a substitute, it unveiled Alexa+ final month, the voice assistant’s generative AI options, and eventually put an ETA on its launch.
“Up till a few years in the past, it was fairly troublesome to invent with AI, and that modified with the arrival of foundational fashions and generative AI. This made the know-how far more accessible, so folks can see the ability and magic of what generative AI can do,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mentioned.
The occasion, which befell on Feb. 26 in New York Metropolis, was Panos Panay’s first since becoming a member of the Gadgets and Companies division after his Microsoft exit. Along with new Alexa options, Amazon additionally made different bulletins.
Every part introduced at Amazon’s February 2025 occasion
Generative AI in Alexa+
Giving Alexa the ability of generative AI was already anticipated to be the star announcement from Amazon — and it was. Over the past Gadgets and Companies occasion in 2023, Amazon introduced a gen AI-powered ‘Alexa+’ or Alexa Plus and a brand new consumer interface coming to an Echo system close to you, and the corporate is now making it extra actual than ever earlier than.
Panay likened the evolution of Alexa and its obstacle-ridden highway towards generative AI to a symphony warming up earlier than a live performance and the way the conductor raises the baton to remodel “disconnected sounds right into a masterpiece.”
Alexa+ will reply with a extra pure cadence, deal with a number of prompts in a session, and generate content material as a substitute of offering canned solutions to questions. It would additionally function better customization energy to recollect consumer preferences (suppose like ChatGPT’s Reminiscence) for extra productive consumer interactions, studying “the rhythm of your life,” based on Panay.
Except for all of this, Alexa+ has contextual consciousness, so it will possibly maintain lengthy conversations and keep in mind what you requested earlier than your final questions as a substitute of giving canned responses from Alexa Solutions contributors. As Amazon demoed, it will possibly additionally learn and course of paperwork so that you can reply questions, like faculty calendars or an HOA CC&R doc.
Alexa+ launch date
The brand new Alexa+ will start rolling out subsequent month to some customers in an early entry method, with a gradual rollout after that.
Amazon mentioned little concerning the new Alexa after the 2023 occasion, with rumors suggesting that the corporate was repeatedly compelled to delay its gen AI launch as a result of poor efficiency. Fortunately, Amazon appears to have lastly smoothed out its Alexa 2.0.
Whereas Alexa dominates the US marketplace for digital assistants, most popular by two-thirds of Individuals, it has additionally just lately fallen behind different assistants, together with Google and, most just lately, Siri. The discharge of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in recent times triggered a tidal wave of generative AI that pushed different digital assistants ashore. On the similar time, Alexa seems to have sunk to the underside of the ocean — till now.
The brand new breed of gen AI-powered digital assistants — ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot powered by OpenAI’s applied sciences, Google Assistant-powered by Gemini, and Siri powered by Apple LLMs — have surged forward previously two years. We will solely wait to see how nicely the brand new Alexa+, powered by Amazon Bedrock fashions, together with Nova and Anthropic, will carry out in real-world situations.
Alexa+ subscription tiers
Amazon’s Alexa+ will work behind a subscription service that can value $20 month-to-month however will likely be free for Prime subscribers. A subscription-based system has been rumored for a couple of 12 months, so this did not come as a shock, however the rumors mentioned it was deliberate to value between $5-$10 month-to-month, not $20. At this value, Alexa+ is identical value as a ChatGPT Plus subscription.
The “Traditional Alexa” will nonetheless be out there for customers preferring to not pay the month-to-month charge, although it isn’t identified how lengthy Amazon plans to keep up the present model.
A brand new Echo Present consumer interface
Amazon additionally introduced a brand new revamped platform for the Echo Present with the launch of Alexa+. The brand new look within the Echo Present interface looks like it will likely be out there within the bigger Echo Present shows for now. Alexa+ may even have integrations together with your Ring subscriptions to supply a brand new expertise on the Echo Present.
The redesigned Echo Present consumer interface includes a sleeker format in your favourite widgets and a cohesive look all through the display screen. Alexa+ is bringing adaptive show to the massive Echo Present units, the Echo Present 15 and Echo Present 21, to indicate a simplified view from afar that transitions to a custom-made display screen once you method the system.
