Amazon Unveils Alexa+, a New Generation of Powerful Voice Assistants Powered by GenAI

Amazon’s Alexa has now gotten a GenAI makeover that makes it more conversational and personalized. This is the biggest update ever to the assistant since its launch in 2014.

On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled the new version of its popular AI assistant, which will now be known as Alexa+. The launch event took place in New York, and the first thing that struck me was how conversational the AI assistant has become.

For instance, you can now speak to it just the way you speak to your friends and family – in informal words and unstructured sentences. It’ll still be able to understand you.

It’s worth noting that early predictions in January stated that the new Alexa might arrive in October, so the company has clearly fast-tracked its development.

Alexa’s Popularity 

There are more than 600 million Alexa devices out there. The product already enjoys the market’s favor thanks to how easy it makes managing smart homes. 

Alexa+ takes its predecessor’s features to a new level. For example, if you’re in the bedroom, you can command it to turn on the TV with your favorite show or movie on it in the living room. So, you can just step outside and fall flat on your couch. Your favorite video will already be playing. 

Similarly, you can also use Alexa+ to access Ring and check whether your package has been delivered or not.

On top of that, the new Alexa+ offers much better personalization. Previously, it only stored information about you, but now you can ask it to remember that information and apply it to the suggestions it makes for you. 

If you tell Alexa that you make really good spaghetti and then ask it for dinner recommendations a few days later, it’ll give you a bunch of spaghetti recipes.

Alexa+ can also take proactive action. For instance, if you’ve been browsing a product for a while, it will automatically notify you when it’s on sale.

Last but not least, Alexa has been integrated with new-age LLM models, which expands its knowledge base. This makes it one of the smartest AI assistants out there. This integration not only allows you to ask random questions but also helps you in your day-to-day tasks. 

If you have a test coming up, you can share your notes with Alexa+ and ask it to turn your notes into a quiz. Similarly, you can share your work emails with it and ask it to set up your calendar accordingly.

What About Privacy?

If a tool knows so much about you, it’s quite natural to be concerned about your privacy. However, you don’t have to worry about that with Alexa+. 

All personal information you share is centrally stored on the Alexa Privacy dashboard. Plus, the entire system is housed in Amazon’s secure AWS infrastructure, which provides world-class security and privacy.

There’s another piece of good news. While Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month, it’ll be available for free to all Prime users.

Rollout has already started in the US with devices like the Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. Apart from that, you can also access it through the brand-new Alexa+ mobile app that’s available on both Android and iPhone.

Amy Clark has extensive knowledge of the SaaS market. She started her journey managing and supporting the content at systeme.io before becoming a writer and then in-house managing editor for Techreport, where she manages the delivery and quality of the content, spanning reviews, comparisons, and buyer guides. Read more

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