The Japan Times - Amazon's next-gen Alexa gets AI upgrade

"I'm not just an assistant. I'm your new best friend in the digital world," Alexa Plus told the audience at a New York launch event.

The upgrade comes amid fierce competition in the AI assistant market.

Microsoft now offers an audio version of Copilot, Google has launched its Gemini AI, and Apple continues working to enhance Siri with generative AI capabilities.

Though the market leaders, Alexa and Siri have been struggling to deliver more intuitive interactions and the companies have long promised increased performance with the use of generative AI.

The rollout comes as tech giants including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI are investing billions in AI development despite uncertain returns.

The tech juggernauts are trying to expand the everyday use of AI, and Amazon can count on a base of over 600 million installed devices already equipped with its 10-year-old service.

Panos Panay, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, said that Alexa Plus opens a new age for voice devices.

"Until this moment... we have been limited by technology," Panay, a former Microsoft executive, said at the event.

For now Alexa is mostly used for relatively simple tasks, such as playing music, giving the weather forecast or turning on the lights in a room.

Alexa Plus's capabilities are closer to that of a virtual agent, capable of performing actions on command.

This launch is "taking AI to the masses," said analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight, adding that there was "a lot riding on this revamp."

"The biggest question is whether users are ready, given their early experiences and concerns around security and trust. These factors still remain huge barriers to wider adoption," he added.

Demonstrations at the event showed Alexa Plus performing tasks like booking concert tickets, sending text messages, planning trips, updating shared calendars, and even analyzing security camera footage to determine if someone had walked the dog.

Benefiting from the new functionalities of generative AI, Alexa Plus can create, at a child's request, a made up story with the characters of his or her choice, or produce a song in tribute to a pet.

In one showcase, the assistant composed and performed a song about a cat using Suno, a music generation service currently facing lawsuits from major music labels.

The new offering includes access through Alexa.com and a dedicated phone app, allowing users to upload documents for feedback similar to ChatGPT or Google's Gemini.

Alexa Plus will launch in the United States in April for $19.99 monthly, with free access for Amazon Prime subscribers.

T.Maeda--JT