Amazon Alexa+ announced, and it's free... sort of

Amazon made some major announcements regarding its Alexa AI assistant at its recent Devices event. While it's good news for some, it's not so great news for others with older devices.

Amazon has introduced some major new features for its Alexa AI assistant, which promise to revolutionise the usefulness of the system. No new hardware was announced, but the advancements shown will benefit existing users of Amazon Prime the most, as long as you already own a compatible Echo Show device.

What's new with Alexa+?

One of the major new additions is the ability for Alexa to coordinate across multiple agents and APIs to perform complex tasks for users. For example, you could ask Alexa to book you a table at a restaurant using OpenTable and then text friends the time and the place. Another example given was getting a recommendation for an oven repair service and automatically booking someone in to come out to you, all in one request.

Conversations with Alexa have been hugely improved, with minimal delay, making more natural conversations with the AI possible. The AI itself has been updated so that it can better understand context. For example, you could tell it to "play music on the speakers in all the rooms, but don't wake the baby", and it'll know not to play sound on the speaker in the baby's room. If you have a Fire TV, you could ask Alexa “what’s that movie where Bradley Cooper sings a duet? Jump to that scene…” and it will take you to that precise moment in the film.

Alexa can also coordinate with devices such as the Ring series of security cameras. Users will be able to ask Alexa to show them events of interest during the day. For example, if you're a control freak, you could ask it when the last time the dog was taken for a walk, and the incriminating evidence, or not, will be shown to you.

A 'smart' future? Alexa+ compatible devices

The new capabilities of the system are comprehensive and far reaching, from managing calendars and summarising emails and having natural conversations, not surprisingly it  relies on the latest AI LLMs. Amazon's Panos Panay wrote on the Amazon blog "At the foundation of Alexa’s state-of-the-art architecture are powerful large language models (LLMs) available on Amazon Bedrock, but that’s just the start. Alexa+ is designed to take action, and is able to orchestrate across tens of thousands of services and devices—which, to our knowledge, has never been done at this scale. To achieve this, we created a concept called “experts”—groups of systems, capabilities, APIs, and instructions that accomplish specific types of tasks for customers."

The new Alexa will remember details about you and your family, such as dietary requirements and allergies when looking up recipes. The system is also proactive, which means it will alert you to heavy traffic in the area and suggest you set off early to work.

Although the headline is that the new system is only compatible with Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21, it isn't strictly the case. Amazon is releasing an Alexa+ app for smartphones so that you can carry on conversations with your cyber friend as you move to your car, or you're otherwise away from home. An Alexa.com website is also being launched, allowing interactions from a web browser.

Those who will get the most benefit from Alexa+ are people who are very much into full home automation. It's easy to see how, with a home full of smart lightbulbs, automatic curtains, smart heating control etc, you could truly have a home that seems like something out of a sci-fi movie. Being able to tell Alexa to slowly wake you up at 7am every morning and get a coffee on the brew for when you get out of bed will seem like a panacea to tech bro fans across the world.

However, although one in four households now have a smart speaker, they are generally used as expensive kitchen timers, according to Ed Freed from marketing agency Rapp UK. He also pointed out that the most logical place for such an assistant is on your smartphone rather than fixed to your kitchen counter.

Further, while Amazon claims it has placed a high emphasis on security, but given the sheer amount of personal data being stored when placed in the context of past data breaches and incidences of recordings being listened into, it would be understandable to be concerned about how information is being stored and used. Particularly so given some of the more concerning recent political developments in the US.

That said, Alexa+ is indicative of our increasingly automated world. One which only three years ago we would have seen as being purely in the purview of science fiction.

Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month for non Prime subscribers. Prime subscribers will get access for no additional cost. The system will be rolling out in the US over the coming weeks, although no firm timescale has been given for a worldwide rollout other than it will be coming later in 2025.