Key Points
- Alexa+ integrates generative AI models from Anthropic, Amazon Nova and others.
- The assistant can remember personal details, summarize forwarded emails, and add extracted dates to calendars.
- Deal‑tracking lets users set price‑drop alerts for specific products.
- Setup is streamlined via QR code scanning and clear permission prompts for third‑party services.
- The Alexa app’s UI remains cluttered, with some broken links and hidden settings.
- Testing shows occasional misinterpretations and incomplete responses.
- Alexa+ aims to enable agentic actions like reservations and grocery ordering.
Launch and Core Technology
Amazon announced a major overhaul of its voice assistant, branding the new service Alexa+. The upgrade leverages generative AI models from Anthropic, Amazon Nova and other providers, allowing the assistant to draw on a variety of sources to answer queries and complete tasks. Amazon describes Alexa+ as model‑agnostic, meaning it can select the most appropriate model for each request.
Expanded Capabilities
Beyond traditional voice commands, Alexa+ can access information stored in a user’s Amazon account, understand calendars, and remember personal details such as frequent‑flyer numbers. Users can forward emails to a dedicated address (alexa@alexa.com) and ask the assistant to summarize the content, as demonstrated with a school welcome‑back letter. The assistant can also add extracted dates to a calendar, though it may prioritize only the most recent entries.
Alexa+ includes a deal‑tracking feature that lets users set alerts for price drops on specific products. In testing, the assistant successfully set trackers for a skincare serum and a designer handbag, though it sometimes omitted available color options or failed to provide current pricing.
User Experience and Setup
Setting up Alexa+ involves scanning a QR code in the Alexa app, which automatically connects the device to Wi‑Fi and prompts users to link external accounts such as Google for email and calendar access. The onboarding flow asks users to enable integrations with services like OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Uber and Thumbtack, giving clear visibility into data permissions.
The Alexa app’s interface remains described as plain and busy, with navigation to music and other preferences hidden behind a bottom‑menu hamburger icon. Some users encounter broken links, such as an error when selecting Audible, indicating areas that still need refinement.
Strengths and Limitations
Positive aspects highlighted include more natural, multi‑turn conversations where users do not need to repeat the wake word, and the ability to store and retrieve personal information on demand. However, the assistant sometimes mishears commands, provides incomplete answers, or fails to act on requests without clarification. In one instance, Alexa+ responded with a lengthy numeral readout of a frequent‑flyer number instead of a concise format.
Feature execution can be inconsistent; for example, when asked about product availability, Alexa+ reported only the black version of a handbag despite a blue option being listed as temporarily out of stock on the website.
Future Outlook
Amazon positions Alexa+ as a step toward agentic AI that can perform tasks like booking rides, ordering groceries and managing smart‑home devices. Early adopters view the service as a promising beta that still requires improvements in reliability, app usability and comprehensive data handling before it can fully replace the older Alexa experience.
Source: techcrunch.com