At an event in NYC on Wednesday, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experience — Alexa+ — powered by generative AI technologies. Onstage, Amazon’s devices and services chief Panos Panay called it a “complete re-architecture” of the AI assistant.
“[W]hile the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment — right this moment — we have been limited by the technology,” Panay said. “An AI chatbot on its own doesn’t get us to our vision of Alexa.”
Amazon says that the new Alexa can answer questions like “How many books have I read this year?,” drawing on info from an Amazon customer’s account. It can notify users when, for example, new tickets for a concert drop, and help with certain tasks like booking a dinner reservation.
“The new Alexa knows almost [everything] in your life — your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected [to and] the entertainment you [enjoy],” Panay said.
Like other assistants on the market, the upgraded Alexa has visual understanding. Through a device’s camera, it can ingest a visual feed and respond to questions, taking whatever’s happening in the live video into account.
Panay says that the improved Alexa can understand tone and the environment around it, and adjust its responses on the fly. “She’s been trained in a couple of different ways, from EQ to humor to understanding,” he added. “She understands I’m a little bit nervous, she’s trying to calm me.”
Beyond tasks like creating quizzes from study guides and crafting basic travel itineraries, Alexa+ can respond to queries such as “What’s the best pizza nearby?” Answers are informed by what’s in Alexa’s “memory” and preferences that Alexa has noted over time.
There’s a visual component to the new Alexa, as well. On Amazon’s Echo Show smart display, Alexa+ powers photo galleries and other personalized content. A new “For You” panel displays timely updates based on a user’s interests, and smart home controls.
Predictably, Alexa+ integrates tightly with Amazon’s broader smart home ecosystem. Users can say a command to have Alexa play music from Amazon Music on a supported smart device connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or have a Fire TV device skip to a particular scene in a movie or TV show.
Alexa+ can also summarize footage from Ring security devices, describing what’s going on in a scene and pulling up specific moments.
Amazon’s pitching the new Alexa as a productivity tool, as well. Users can upload files and documents, and Alexa will be able to parse and refer to these in the future. For example, a user could say something like, “I forwarded a work schedule, are there any interesting events I need to be aware of?,” and Alexa will highlight key items in the doc.
Aside from simply reading docs, Alexa can take certain actions on those docs.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
