Amazon unveils next-gen Alexa+ powered by generative AI

+Amazon has released the latest version of its AI assistant, Alexa with several new improvements from the previous one.

In a blog on 26 February, the company said the new assistant called Alexa+ is powered by generative AI and is set to make customers’ experience better than the previous version.

Alexa+ is said to be more conversational, smarter, personalized, and gets things done easier than the old Alexa since it keeps learning.

A new experience

Alexa is a voice-based virtual assistant that helps with tasks like playing music, setting reminders, and controlling smart home devices. It works on both Amazon and third-party devices. 

The service is currently available on hundreds of millions of devices worldwide and has been used to power many features such as iPhone’s voice-to-text feature.

Amazon had promised to release the new version known as Alexa+ months ago but was delayed. 

According to the company, the new AI assistant is more conversational with greater understanding and a natural touch and never stops learning. 

“We’ve infused cutting-edge LLMs with Alexa’s vast knowledge base, creating a meaningfully smarter AI assistant that never stops learning. But it’s not just about knowing a lot of things, it’s about deeply understanding and bringing it all together into an accurate and real-time response—and Alexa+ does that.”

It is also said to take more action, like control smart homes with products from Philips Hue, Roborock, make reservations or appointments with OpenTable and Vagaro, explore discographies and play music from providers including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music using a concept called “expert”.

Alexa+ is also highly personalized, but customers can still personalize it further. By giving it important information such as  family recipes, important dates, facts, dietary preferences, it can apply the information and take action on them.

Available worldwide

The new AI assistant is now available worldwide to customers who can access it in a new mobile app on both Apple App Store and Google Play store, and a new browser-based experience at Alexa.com. 

Users can have a conversation with Alexa+ across devices from their Echo device, to the phone or in the car, and pick it up on their computer whenever they want with the context still intact, making it more flexible to use.