Amazon unveils gen AI-powered 'Alexa+' with agentic abilities: What's new

Amazon introduced its next-generation digital assistant, Alexa+, at the Devices and Services event in New York on February 26. Powered by generative artificial intelligence, the new Alexa offers enhanced capabilities such as natural language processing, personalised interactions, and agentic abilities.

 

Here is everything you need to know about the new gen AI-powered Alexa:

 

Alexa+: What is new

 

With the integration of generative AI, Alexa+ enables more natural and free-flowing conversations. It can understand context more effectively, making interactions smoother. Another key upgrade is personalisation—Alexa+ improves over time by learning user preferences, including dietary restrictions, allergies, and more.

 

The digital assistant also gains agentic capabilities, allowing it to complete tasks on behalf of users. Amazon stated that Alexa+ can help with event planning, online shopping, and travel bookings. It works with third-party services such as Uber for ride-hailing and OpenTable for dinner reservations.

Another notable feature is document and email analysis. Users can upload files such as study materials or recipes, and Alexa+ can retrieve relevant information, provide summaries, or generate calendar events based on the content. Users can also forward emails to Alexa+, which will extract key details to answer related queries.

 

Other notable features include:

• Create complex Routines using voice commands.
• Transfer music playback between devices.
• Jump to specific scenes in Prime Video using Alexa+.
• Summarise activity in and around the house leveraging Ring security cameras.

Alexa+: How it works

 

Amazon redesigned Alexa's underlying architecture to enable these advanced features. Rather than relying on a single large language model (LLM), Alexa+ utilises multiple models, including Amazon's own Nova and Anthropic's Claude. This "model-agnostic" approach ensures Alexa+ selects the most suitable AI model for each task.

 

Additionally, Amazon said that it had to augment the native capabilities of these LLMs to allow Alexa+ to work in tandem with third-party services like Uber, Spotify, Apple Music, Netflix, Disney+, and TripAdvisor. To enable agentic actions, Alexa+ is designed to navigate websites and complete tasks with minimal user intervention.

Alexa+: Availability

 

Alexa+ will first launch in the United States in the coming weeks, with a gradual rollout to select Echo Show devices, including Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. As for subscription, Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month individually, but Amazon Prime members will get access at no additional cost.