Amazon has launched Alexa+, its next-generation assistant powered by generative AI (GenAI).
According to Panos Panay, senior vice-president: devices and services at Amazon, Alexa+ is more conversational, smarter and more personalised.
“She keeps you entertained, helps you learn, keeps you organised, summarises complex topics and can converse about virtually anything,” he writes on the company blog. “Alexa+ can manage and protect your home, make reservations, and help you track, discover, and enjoy new artists. She can also help you search, find or buy virtually any item online, and make useful suggestions based on your interests.
“Alexa+ does all this and more — all you have to do is ask.”
Panay explains that Alexa+ is based on the large language models (LLMs) available on Amazon Bedrock.
To help the system orchestrate across tens of thousands of services and devices, Amazon created a concept called “experts” — groups of systems, capabilities, APIs and instructions that accomplish specific types of tasks for customers.
Alexa+ also introduces agentic capabilities, which will enable it to navigate the internet in a self-directed way to complete tasks on the user’s behalf.
“The new Alexa is highly personalised — and gives you opportunities to personalise further,” Panay says.