Amazon is holding an event on February 26 at 10AM ET. While we don’t exactly know what the company plans on showing off, we certainly have some educated guesses. Let’s get into it.
First of all, the company’s hardware chief, Panos Panay, and his devices and services team will be on hand. This indicates the presence of new gadgets at the event. However, the main focus will likely be more information on the long-promised next-gen Alexa.
How do we know this? Amazon sent out five versions of a bare-bones invite to the event. Internet sleuths pieced the images together and, lo and behold, the background spells out the word “Alexa.”
The AI-infused refresh has faced several delays since first being announced back in 2023. We reported that the team was having trouble getting the updated chatbot to do basic things, like creating a timer and turning on smart lights. These kinds of tasks have been the bread and butter of the current Alexa chatbot for years. The development team has also reportedly had issues with hallucinations.
The company claims the new LLM-powered Alexa will be able to “process nuance and ambiguity—much like a person would—and intelligently take action.” Amazon says that it’ll be able to complete complex requests, like “Alexa, every weeknight at 9PM, make an announcement that it’s bedtime for the kids, dim the lights upstairs, turn on the porch light and switch on the fan in the bedroom.” That sounds useful, if it works.
That brand-new Alexa would likely benefit from some dedicated hardware, thus the inclusion of Panay and his team. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten updates to the Echo line of smart speakers, so a refresh of some kind is more than likely. It’s also possible the budget-friendly and useful Echo Buds earbuds will get an upgrade.
What shouldn’t we expect? Well, Amazon just introduced some new Kindles at the tail-end of last year. It’d be weird to see an e-reader at this event. Also, while it’s possible the company could introduce new Fire tablets and the like, that doesn’t really gel with the whole Alexa theme.