What you need to know
- Amazon announced its new AI assistant — Alexa Plus, which is said to be more conversational and intuitively understands the user’s needs.
- Alexa Plus can interact across different streaming, home devices, and shopping apps. While also effortlessly performing tasks like summarizing texts, emails, or complex topics.
- Alexa Plus comes for $19.99 per month for those not subscribed to Amazon Prime but is free for Prime subscribers.
Amazon seems to finally be getting on the AI train, so to speak, as it launched the new Alexa Plus this week. According to the company, this newly supercharged AI powered assistant is more intuitive, understanding the user’s needs more effortlessly than the previous model.
The company claims that Alexa Plus is trained to not only summarize complex topics but also manage and “protect your home, make reservations, and help you track, discover, and enjoy new artists.” Amazon seems to be bringing a multi-faceted approach to all of its products by integrating Alexa Plus within them. Users will be able to find or buy anything online with just a quick voice command to this AI-powered assistant.
Amazon further stated that it had to practically rebuild the new assistant using tech that connects a variety of large language models (LLMs), which will help it interact with other services across the globe. “To achieve this, we created a concept called ‘experts’ — groups of systems, capabilities, APIs, and instructions that accomplish specific types of tasks for customers,” the release added.
This means that Alexa Plus can seamlessly connect to varied applications and services that are outside the Amazon universe as well. As a result, the company’s assistant can cross-communicate with a wide range of apps, including streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu, and also home devices from companies like Philips Hue and Roborock.
Additionally, Alexa Plus can also be directed to complete tasks on the user’s behalf behind the scenes. For instance, if your oven needs fixing, Alexa Plus will be able to look for the service provider online and arrange the repair based on your schedule — all without the user’s intervention.
Like any other AI assistant on the market, Alexa Plus can answer questions like “What is the lowest point in any ocean on earth?” or just something vague like “What’s the song that Bradley Cooper sings at the start of that country music movie?” However, users can go a step further and upload documents, emails, or photos — via a desktop browser or the mobile app — for the assistant to analyze and summarize for them if needed, a feature Gemini recently opened up to free users.
Lastly, Amazon says that the user gets to control information that is shared with the AI assistant via a built-in Privacy dashboard on the app.
This new and improved Alexa Plus comes for $19.99 per month for those not subscribed to Amazon Prime. However, if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, access to Alexa Plus is free, adding even more value to the subscription. It will roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks for Echo Show owners, although you’ll need to sign up for early access to get it. Everyone else will receive Alexa Plus over the coming months.