With the rise of AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, Amazon has been working on relaunching its voice assistant Alexa with revamped AI features.
According to a new report from The Washington Post, Alexa AI is coming back in October with several new features, with a slight catch. The upgraded Alexa Plus will reportedly cost "as much as $10 a month," with the current version of Alexa rebranded as "classic Alexa."
The Post claims they obtained "internal documents" that reveal the potential subscription and some new features.
Apparently, the price and subscription structure isn't final, as the report says Amazon is planning to "make decisions on pricing, subscription structure and the product name" this month.
This comes amidst a summer of reports that Amazon has been struggling with updating Alexa and the company's Echo speakers. Reportedly, Amazon has been losing billions on Alexa and their smart speakers. In June, it was reported that Alexa 2.0 AI was nowhere near ready.
At the time, Amazon was claimed to be "an organization beset by structural dysfunction and technological challenges that have repeatedly delayed shipment of the new generative AI-powered Alexa. Overall, the former employees paint a picture of a company desperately behind its rivals Google, Microsoft, and Meta in the race to launch AI chatbots and agents, and floundering in its efforts to catch up."
At the same time, it was reported in late June that Amazon has been working on a new chatbot internally dubbed "Metis." It's unclear if the potential AI chatbot is being integrated into the new Alexa.
New features
The new Alexa will be able to recognize the individual voices of customers and learn about them by asking questions. Like many chatbot assistants, Alexa will reportedly be more conversational and "charismatic" than the classic Alexa.
Voice ID already exists for Alexa, which seems like an expansion of that feature.
The big AI feature appears to be something called "Smart Briefing." The tool is meant to deliver "daily, AI-generated summaries of news articles" with the types of articles "selected based on a customer's preferences."
How accurate this feature will be remains to be seen, and it needs to be clear and accurate, especially in an election year.
The internal documents state, "AI features that help customers curate, summarize, and explore current events was also rated as one of the top customer requests."
Additionally, Alexa 2.0 will help you find recipes and work with you on dietary restrictions. The leaked documents claim that recipe help was among the "top three areas where customers want more help." Whether or not Alexa will tell you to eat glue like Google's AI overviews remains to be seen.
A shopping scout is being added to get people to use Alexa to shop on Amazon. Using conversational language, you can ask questions like "Do you have any deals on headphones?" or "What colors do the shoes come in?" It will also let you know when something you've looked at has gone on sale.
Perhaps the most controversial new feature is a shopping assistant that Amazon apparently hopes will "prove compelling to children."
The Posts report says the leaked documents introduce a new experience called "Explore with Alexa 2.0" that will let "verified" children have "back-and-forth exploratory conversations with Alexa about any topic under the sun."
Seemingly, this experience will be "safe and moderated," but experts are split on whether or not smart speakers are good for kids.
The leaked documents suggest that a new experience called 'Explore with Alexa 2.0' will let verified children have "back-and-forth, exploratory conversations with Alexa about any topic under the sun."
Finally, it looks like Amazon will also launch a web UI version of Alexa for the first time. This version of Alexa is meant to compete directly with ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.
