Amazon is gearing up to give Alexa the AI power boost it desperately needs

According to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, Amazon is preparing to launch the most significant update to Alexa since the voice assistant first burst onto the scene. All the way back in September 2023, Amazon teased a more powerful version of Alexa that uses AI to make the voice assistant more capable, with the ability to have conversations with far better contextual understanding, and without having to repeatedly use the “Alexa” wake word.

According to the documents seen by the Washington Post, the new update was tipped for release in mid-October, with access to the upgraded version of Alexa requiring a paid subscription that could cost as much as $10 per month. October came and went with no official announcement from the commerce giant, leaving a late November or December time-frame the most likely launch window for the new service.

The new Alexa has the potential to be far more useful

AI-powered features can make Alexa relevant again

Alexa may not have been the first voice assistant, but it’s one of the most popular, thanks to Amazon’s tactic of building it into low-cost smart speakers and other companies building it into their own products. Many of us have at least one Alexa device, and they’re affordable enough that you can place them all over your home.

However, despite having been around for almost a decade, Alexa hasn’t changed much. The assistant is still useful for asking about the weather or playing music, and being able to control your smart home devices by voice is still a major selling point, but in the era of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, the current version of Alexa feels dated and lacking in features.

This new version for Alexa is intended to change that. Using the power of generative AI and large language models, the updated Alexa will reportedly be far more capable. When the changes to Alexa were announced last year, we were given a sneak peek of what the AI-powered voice-activated assistant will be able to do. In the demonstration, Dave Limp, chief of devices and services at Amazon at the time, held a long-flowing conversation with Alexa, without needing to say the “Alexa” wake word each time.

He started by asking how his favorite football team was doing. Alexa remembered the team from previous conversations. He then said he was planning to have a watch party for the next game and asked Alexa for suggestions for sides to go with the food he planned to cook. He asked Alexa for the weather for game day, and then requested it to create a message inviting his friends over, and finally had the message sent to his phone. All of this was done without Alexa needing additional information; all the previous context was extracted from the conversation.

One of the best smart home features that was teased is the ability to create complex Alexa routines, just by asking the assistant. The example that was given was asking Alexa to turn on the coffee machine, open the blinds, dim the lights in the study, and play the morning news at 8AM every day. A routine was instantly created, something that currently takes much longer to do manually. It was also possible to give multiple commands at once, such as asking Alexa to turn off the lights, lock the front door, and power off the TV. It was even possible to give vague commands such as “make the lights look spooky,” which Alexa could follow.

It’s unclear how many of these features will be available when the new version of Alexa launches.

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The new Alexa didn’t arrive in October, but its release is getting closer

The updated features will come at a cost, however

Unfortunately, analysts appear to have gotten ahead of themselves regarding the new Alexa launching in October. The Washington Post published a similar article earlier this year relating to another internal document that stated the new Alexa was due to launch in September 2024.

Nevertheless, it appears the new Alexa is getting closer. While it didn’t launch in mid-October, we likely shouldn’t have to wait much longer. One thing that does seem almost certain, is that we’ll need to pay for the privilege of using the new updated Alexa.

The Washington Post’s leaked document reportedly states that the subscription could be as much as $10 per month. Alexa will need significant new skills in order to convince people to pay for something that they currently use for free.

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