Amazon rolling out AI-driven Alexa+ service

Amazon revealed Wednesday it will be rolling out an Alexa+ service infused with artificial intelligence (AI).

The e-commerce giant unveiled the technology at a highly anticipated event Wednesday, and Amazon described Alexa+ as “much more conversational, smarter, personalized and capable of getting even more things done for customers.” 

The launch of Alexa+ will start with an “early access period” in the U.S. focusing on Echo Show 8, 10, 15 and 21 devices in the coming weeks, according to the company. Amazon said it will become more available “in waves” in the months after that. 

The Amazon logo in an illustration photo in Warsaw, Poland, Nov. 21, 2023. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The company said it will include Alexa+ in its Amazon Prime membership. For those without a Prime subscription, it will carry a $19.99-per-month price tag.

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Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s executive vice president for Alexa and Echo, said at Wednesday’s event that Alexa+ will “already work with literally tens of thousands of other services and devices from our partners” on the first day it goes live. 

Alexa+ will capitalize on large language models such as the company’s Nova models and models from Anthropic for its AI-powered capabilities, according to the e-commerce giant. 

“Alexa+ is founded on a model-agnostic system, so it’s always using the best model for any given task,” Amazon executives said.

The company highlighted Alexa+’s new “agentic capabilities,” saying the service will be able to “navigate the internet in a self-directed way to complete tasks” for customers, such as arranging the repair of a kitchen appliance. 

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The service will also bring other new features to customers. 

For example, it will be able to utilize Ring’s smart video search to help a user figure out whether garbage bins have been taken out, according to Amazon. The company said it will “jump to your favorite scene” in a movie on Prime Video if a Fire TV user provides details. 

Alexa+ will also remember dietary preferences and apply that information when making restaurant suggestions, the company said. It will be able to order Ubers, make reservations through OpenTable, let users know when concert tickets become available on Ticketmaster and more. 

In this photo illustration, a shopping cart is seen in front of the Amazon logo. (Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Amazon first launched Alexa over a decade ago. There are about 600 million Alexa devices around the world now, according to the company. 

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Shares of Amazon saw a boost on the news before settling around $213.76 late Wednesday afternoon.  

The company’s market capitalization was around $2.25 trillion.

Madison Alworth and Marc Smith contributed to this report.