Amazon has just pulled the covers off its new version of Alexa – called Alexa+ – at an event in New York.
With new Head of Devices and Services, Panos Panay, giving an emotional welcome to the new AI-powered voice assistant, there were plenty of impressive features shown off.
On one level, Alexa+ takes everything you expect from Alexa and makes it simpler, faster and more intuitive, but there’s a lot more going on here, including a big part of the new Alexa that didn’t really get talked about.
Fortunately, I was at the event to find out a little more…
Alexa+ revamps every part of the Alexa experience
Amazon was quick to point out that there are over 600 million Alexa devices out there and thanks to regular sales on the Echo speakers, there are many millions of people using Alexa every day.
That gives Alexa+ an immediate advantage, but it also means that if it doesn’t work, millions of people are going to be upset about it.
So focusing on core Alexa skills, like entertainment and smart home control, makes perfect sense for showcasing Alexa+’s new skills.
You might be wondering how far you can evolve voice control when it will basically play any song you want easily, but Amazon was keen to show just how dynamic Alexa+ now is.
Alexa+ knows a lot more than original Alexa ever did, so you can ask for music with more complex phrases.
You might say you’re having a dinner party and want some music; original Alexa will pick-up on the word “party” and play party music – Alexa+ will detect the wider context and give you dinner party music instead.
In depth: Alexa Plus explainer – what is it and how much will it cost?
Perhaps the most powerful demo was describing a song or a movie and having it appear. Just like getting a friend to remind you of a title you forget, Alexa+ can do the same thing.
On stage we saw a demo where Alexa+ was able to jump to a scene in Prime Video movie, based on a described song from the movie, something that’s coming to the service in the future as its skills evolve.
Alexa Routines will be so much easier with Alexa+
If you’re got a smart home controlled by Alexa, you’ll be familiar with Alexa Routines.
They let you make custom automations for your connected devices. This has been done with an if-this- then-that setup through the Alexa app in the past, but through Alexa+ you ditch that whole process and just say what you want.
The best part is that you don’t have to use precise language which you currently do.
Alexa+ can make educated guesses from wider contextual information. For example, you can say “Alexa, the kids are taking too long to go to bed in the evenings, create a routine to help this process”.
Alexa+ will then create a routine that dims the lights a little and make relevant changes to encourage everyone to wind-down for bedtime.
It tells you what the Routine will do and that Routine will be saved in the Alexa app as normal – and you can edit it.
But, importantly, you don’t have to click through every parameter to set it up in the first place. This is great, because many people will probably be put off by Routines because they can be complicated.
Alexa+ will make this a lot easier, so you can setup voice controls by describing what you want to Alexa and leaving it to work out the details.
So far, so what?
You might be thinking that Alexa+ isn’t that interesting. It streamlines what you can already do and if you’re happy with the experience, then you might not see the point.
But there’s a lot more going on from an AI perspective, that makes Alexa+ more competitive when it comes to managing your life.
The first important thing is document scanning. This is the sort of things that all AI is good at, whether it’s Siri, Gemini or ChatGPT, getting summary information is easy.
Alexa will do this too, with the ability to email a document or take a photo of it, and feed that into Alexa+.
Before you panic about privacy, this isn’t data that the model learns and then shares, it’s private to you and you can always access these documents and delete them.
But once Alexa+ has ingested the details, they can be accessed through Alexa, so you can plan, find information and add reminders to your calendar.
That might be anything from a legal document like a lease, where Alexa+ can pick out terms and conditions (like whether you can have a pet cat), or something with specific details, like the timings and booking references for that football tournament you signed up to.
These skills are entirely new to Alexa, giving you a more personalised experience – and something that you can access via lots of different routes.
Alexa.com is a big part of the puzzle
Amazon mentioned Alexa.com at the Alexa+ reveal, but hasn’t shown it off and didn’t say much about it.
But for Alexa+ users, Alexa.com will become a browser access point for the service. While that might not be something you might find useful for old Alexa, this is where you can use Alexa+ more like other AI platforms, like ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
You’ll be able to dive in at a desktop to start planning things, with all the information and the progress you make accessible though the (new) Alexa app or via voice or screen on Echo devices.
Exactly how this experience will play out remains to be seen, but with Alexa+ being free to Amazon Prime subscribers, it potentially gives you access to tools that some other services might charge you for.
I also mentioned the new app. Alexa+ users will get a new app experience, allowing access not only to the sorts of things that the current app offers, but also to this more dynamic version of Alexa both through voice and a written experience.
Again, this is going to be more like the Google Gemini experience and should give great flexibility.
Alexa+ is about getting stuff done
One of the key points that Amazon was keen to stress was that Alexa+ is about being useful and getting stuff done.
While many current AI offerings will help you start things, Alexa+ is going to leverage the wide range of partners it already has to solve problems and join up all the dots.
That’s going to allow Alexa+ to act as an online agent for you, using your accounts to make bookings, send invites, and make arrangements.
It’s not just about finding a restaurant, it’s about reserving a table, booking an Uber and sharing the details with friends all though one conversation.
Alexa has been really good at joining the dots so far. Alexa’s open approach to working with just about every brand you can think of (or rather, every brand recognising that Alexa was central to a connected experience) has made building smart homes easier.
With Alexa+ the ability use conversational language across a full range of services should make Alexa a lot more powerful – and easier to use.
Of course, there’s great interaction between Amazon devices, with Fire TV benefitting from Alexa+ and compatibility with Ring’s new Smart Video Search feature, for example.
With Amazon also owning smart home stalwarts like Blink and Eero, I’d expect this functionality to expand as Alexa+ evolves.
