Amazon has finally pushed ahead into a new age of digital assistants, with Alexa+. This next-gen version is powered by generative artificial intelligence capabilities. It has a more natural language capability, a wider range of agentic capabilities, and can convert voice commands into routines.
Alexa+’s AI upgrades come from Amazon Nova and Anthropic-Claude AI models. Amazon claims that the next-generation assistant will make conversations sound more natural and rewarding. It can, for example, remember preferences and favorites.
It can recall these details when needed thanks to a memory system similar to the one Google Gemini received recently. The contextual awareness and memory abilities allow users to seamlessly move their Alexa+ conversation from an Echo speaker to a phone and then to a connected interface on their car.
How can I use Alexa+?
Alexa+ be free for Prime members and will roll out to users in US as an early-access program next month. Alexa+ is available through a new mobile application that will be compatible with Android and iOS devices. You can sign up now for early access Here
Amazon will also launch a web client for Alexa.com, which will allow access through a browser. If you do not have a Prime membership, Amazon will charge $19.99 for Alexa+.
Hardware support will be limited to Echo Show devices (8, 10, 15 and 21-inch models). Once you own one of these devices, Alexa+ is available on all Echo devices. There are a few exceptions. The following list of devices are not eligible:
- Echo Dot, 1st Generation
- Echo, 1st Generation
- Echo Plus, 1st Edition
- Echo Tap;
- Echo Show, 1st generation
- Echo Show 2,nd generation
- Echo Spot 1,st edition
What’s New with Alexa+?
“The more you use Alexa+, the better your experience will get,” says Amazon. A notable upgrade for the next-gen assistant is its ability to seamlessly perform tasks across different platforms, such as GrubHub, Yelp, Amazon, Apple Music, Netflix, and more.
For example, you can ask the assistant to make a restaurant reservation and text your friend about it, as well. These agentic capabilities will essentially allow Alexa+ to perform tasks on a different company’s website on behalf of users.
If that sounds familiar, well, that’s because OpenAI aims to pull off something similar with its Operator tool, but at a much higher cost than the premium Amazon is asking for Alexa+ access from non-Prime customers.
It will fill up all the details across any third-party service, authenticate the user identity, and get the job done. Alexa+ will order groceries, play music from third-party platforms, book appointments, keep an eye on ticket sales, and catch up users on the Ring Camera activity across the day.
You can just tell it to call a plumber, and it will do so after performing a web search and fixing a repair visit. Alexa+ can book an Uber, keep an eye on deals, find tickers, help with travel planning, and more — all thanks to API integrations with partner brands and services.
The company is also giving it more of an AI chatbot spin, allowing Alexa+ to pull information in real time from reliable sources such as Reuters, Associated Press, The Washington Post, among others. It can also generate images using text/voice prompts, and even create music, thanks to partnership with Suno.
Taking a leaf out of the Google Gemini playbook (and the upcoming app intent system for Apple’s Siri), Alexa+ will turn voice commands into actions as well as routines. For example, you can simply tell it to create an automation for controlling certain devices, and it will do so, without having users go through a complex app-based setup.
A companion for everyone, and everything
“Alexa+ is designed to take action, and is able to orchestrate across tens of thousands of services and devices—which, to our knowledge, has never been done at this scale,” says Amazon. In the realm of smart home control, Alexa+ is adding some notable new tricks.
For example, users can tell it to keep the TV in their lobby ready and play a certain TV show while they are on their way. It can tap into the live footage from a Ring camera to tell if a package has been delivered, and seamlessly move music playback to any specified speaker in the house.
Amazon is giving a big push to Alexa+ as a smarter companion for every member of the house. For example, the underlying large language model and deals with content partners allows it to offer solutions in the same way ChatGPT or Gemini answer your queries.
“You can also add to her knowledge by sharing documents, emails, photos, and messages—via a desktop browser, the mobile app, or even via email—for Alexa to remember, summarize, or take action on,” adds Amazon. Alexa is also getting file comprehension capabilities to compete with the products from Google and OpenAI.
To that end, users can upload a ticket picture and have Alexa+ add it to their calendar by automatically gleaning all the necessary details from the ticket. Likewise, it can turn education material into interactive quizzes for children.
It can also do the reverse and catch up users on their schedule by looking at their calendar entries. The new Alexa+ Daily Briefings feature offers a quick breakdown of all the trending events, while the For You widget notifies users about all their upcoming alerts and commitments.
Just like Google’s smart compose or Writing Tools in Apple Intelligence, Alexa+ can write original content while also letting users make the necessary modifications. Email and message summarization are part of the parcel, as well.
Going far deeper than Alexa ever could
Coming to the entertainment part, users can directly ask it questions such as “play the scene from a movie where Tom Hanks runs a marathon” and it will automatically launch and fast forward to that particular film scene. This capability has been deeply integrated at the heart of Amazon’s Prime Video service.
Alexa+ also gets a new natural language search feature that lets users search a specific photo and video in their gallery by simply describing it. For parents, there’s a dedicated Alexa+ Kids experience that restricts certain activities for kids, such as voice-activated shopping and mature multimedia content.
The next-gen assistant is also getting certain vision-based capabilities, as well. For example, via a camera, it can take a look at the groceries, and order what’s needed or describe recipes based on what’s available at hand. It ties into automation, too.
Alexa+ can also recognize faces, or other items, and accordingly take actions. For example, users can just narrate a reminder such as “When you see the dog, inform me through the study room speaker.” Amazon has taken the app out of the equation when it comes to routines.
Users can simply narrate multi-step, multi-device control plans, and it will be converted into a routine automatically. There are also options for creating long-term personalised routines based on how the weather is, or progress within a week or month.
Overall, Alexa+ sounds like a massive upgrade, one that focuses as much on next-gen AI-driven upgrades as it does on practical aspects of using a digital assistant to control a wide range of smart home devices. It’s a cohesive approach, but one with a lot more granular controls that are just a sentence away from kicking into action.
