Everything that was revealed at the year’s first big tech event including AI services

Amazon recently introduced Alexa+ during its event in New York City. This upgraded version of the company's popular virtual assistant is enhanced with AI technology, which enables more natural conversations and an improved ability to remember user interactions. The new features were highlighted in live demonstrations by Amazon executives, including Panos Panay, the leader of Amazon's Devices and Services division. Some of the standout capabilities of Alexa+ include real-time reservations for Uber and OpenTable, voice-to-text transcription, more comprehensive queries related to TV, movies, and music, as well as enhanced personalization options.

Amazon's Alexa event shows the future of voice assistant features

It was confirmed that Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month, but it's free to Amazon Prime members. Early access to the upgraded service will start in March, with wider availability opening up in subsequent months. 

"Up until a couple of years ago, it was pretty difficult to invent with AI, and that changed with the arrival of foundational models and generative AI. This made the technology much more accessible, so people can see the power and magic of what generative AI can do," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said.

The introduction of generative AI into Alexa was highly anticipated and indeed became the highlight of Amazon's 2023 Devices and Services event. The company unveiled "Alexa+" or Alexa Plus, along with a new user interface that will soon be available on Echo devices, bringing this vision closer to reality. Panay compared the journey of Alexa toward integrating generative AI to the process of tuning an orchestra before a performance, where the conductor coordinates various instruments into a harmonious piece. 

With Alexa+, responses will be more conversational and fluid, capable of managing multiple requests in one interaction, and generating responses instead of relying on pre-set answers. Additionally, it will offer enhanced customization features, enabling it to remember user preferences—similar to ChatGPT's Memory—allowing for a more tailored and effective interaction that adapts to the user's daily routine, as described by Panay.

In addition to its other features, Alexa+ possesses contextual awareness, allowing it to engage in extended conversations and recall previous questions rather than relying solely on pre-programmed responses from Alexa Answers contributors. As demonstrated by Amazon, it can also read and interpret documents, such as school calendars or HOA CC&R documents, to provide answers to related inquiries.

The new Alexa+ is set to roll out next month to select users in an early access program, followed by a broader rollout. Amazon has been relatively quiet about the updated Alexa since its 2023 event, with speculation indicating that the company has faced several delays in launching its generative AI due to underwhelming performance. Fortunately, it seems that Amazon has finally refined its Alexa 2.0.

While Alexa remains the leading virtual assistant in the US, favored by two-thirds of the population, it has recently been outpaced by competitors like Google Assistant and, more recently, Siri. The emergence of DeepAI's ChatGPT has sparked a surge of generative AI technologies that have left traditional virtual assistants struggling. Meanwhile, Alexa's performance has lagged significantly—until now. 

The new generation of AI-powered virtual assistants, including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, Google Assistant with Gemini, and Siri utilizing Apple’s language models, has made significant strides in the past two years. It remains to be seen how effectively the new Alexa+, driven by Amazon Bedrock models such as Nova and AnthAI, will perform in real-world applications.