Amazon unveils AI-powered Alexa+, not available in Canada yet

Amazon unveiled Alexa+, a brand new refreshed version of the virtual assistant, powered by generative and contextual AI, at a behind-closed-doors event in New York City. Alexa+ is expected to begin rolling out in March.

Following in the footsteps of many major tech giants on the market, Amazon is striving to harness the power of conversational AI. Amazon is already a leader in AI innovations and low-latency, cloud-based applications built on Amazon Bedrock. Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo, explained that Alexa+ is a substantial upgrade from the original version of the virtual assistant. The new Large Language Model (LLM) is built on Amazon Nova and in collaboration with Anthropic, which makes Claude.

Alexa+ is designed as a smarter, more intuitive software upgrade to Amazon’s virtual assistant. The Alexa refresh is said to be able to read your personal schedule, smart home devices, favourite entertainment apps, and services. With all of these in tandem, Alexa+ is made to support more personal experiences with the user.

Most importantly, Alexa+ is capable of forming ongoing conversations. After one query, you can continue the conversation with Alexa, building off the last question or request without reiterating yourself. This more conversational advantage breaks down the barriers and monotonous chore of asking Alexa one question after another and having to repeat yourself.

During a live demo at the event, Panos Panay, Amazon’s head of Devices and Services, highlighted the deeper Alexa+ personality over the stock version of the software. In a fairly impressive showing, Alexa+ (used on an Amazon Echo Show 21) was able to see the 250 members of the press in the keynote, and intuitively recognize we were on our laptops.

In a separate demo highlighting the ways Alexa+ can help with something as simple as food recommendations, the new software can take in personal preferences to offer better suggestions.

Alexa+ can pick up on contextual cues as well. Utilizing a Ring camera, Alexa+ can pinpoint if a member of a family has walked the dog during the day. The software does this by analyzing the recorded video from the Ring camera to identify whether a dog (Huskey in the case of the demo) was being walked.

Of course, not all live demos went off without a hitch. Whether it was environmental issues with acoustics or simply because the software is still in development, Alexa+ did need some massaging from time to time. However, at no point during the keynote was Alexa+ simply unable to complete a request or query.

To compliment Alexa’s new personality, devices like the Echo Show 15 or Echo Show 21 feature a blue bar on the bottom of the display. At times, Alexa+ will highlight a smile, or an ‘Alexacon’ as Amazon calls it. New widgets, for instance, can be customized and tailored to your preferences. A new smart home widget unifies everything from living room lights to cameras, locks, switches, etc. Alexa+ can then interact and control each of these and set up schedules depending on your lifestyle. Rather than having to create tailored schedules for every piece of your smart home, Alexa+ is able to set certain lights or lock your doors during a nighttime routine more intuitively by interacting with the software.

Alexa+ can also make improvements in how you discover and interact with your entertainment. In more conversational queries, Alexa+ was able to search and find “the song Bradley Cooper sings with Lady Gaga.” Setting up Shallow to play on a series of Echo Studio speakers around the keynote studio, Alexa+ was then able to control which specific speakers in the network the song played on. Following this, Alexa+ was then asked to play the song on a Fire TV on stage. Finally, and most impressively, the software was then able to pull up the exact moment in A Star is Born when the song played.

You can also feed written or virtual documents and schedules to Alexa+ that the software can contextually read and act on. For example, if you have a soccer game next week, Alexa+ can set a reminder of the game, where it is, and to bring snacks. All of this can be set without having to painstakingly take time to set reminders and notices of each individual piece of your day.

Further, Amazon is working with a ton of partners. Alexa+ will integrate with OpenTable, GrubHub, TripAdvisor, Uber, Forbes, Sonos, and many more. Users will ideally be able to search for a restaurant on OpenTable and book a reservation for the evening. Alexa+ can then be used to order an Uber for a family member attending the reservation. Recognizing the location and time of dinner, Alexa+ can then ensure the Uber is ordered and arrives on time.

Amazon also announced two new features catered towards kids, ‘Explore with Alexa’ and ‘Stories with Alexa.’ The former is a way for kids to interact with Alexa, ask questions and let their imaginations run wild. They can ask Alexa about space exploration and get information that’s more contextual and appropriate for a child versus an adult. Stories with Alexa can create and tell stories to kids, paired with generative AI images.

It’s worth noting that Alexa+ won’t be available in Canada at launch. As the company explains, the new software will be available in the U.S. for US$19.99 per month. However, all Prime members get access to Alexa+ at no additional cost. Afterwards, Alexa+ will come to Canada and other global regions later this year. Unfortunately, there’s no word on which partners will be supported when Alexa+ makes its way to Canada. Canadian pricing is still unknown as of the time of writing.