On Thursday, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, suggested that the company is working on an upgraded version of Alexa, its voice assistant. This new version might be smarter and able to take actions for users, not just answer questions.
During a call discussing the company’s financial results, Jassy explained that future assistants like Alexa will be better at helping users by doing tasks instead of just providing information. He mentioned that Amazon is updating how Alexa works with new technology that will be shared soon.
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Amazon first mentioned plans to enhance Alexa with new AI features back in 2023, but they’ve faced some difficulties. They are now looking to use technology from Anthropic, a company that Amazon invests in, instead of their previous models. At one point, this new version of Alexa had issues, like taking several seconds to respond to questions or failing to control smart home devices.
The upgraded Alexa, which is internally referred to as “Remarkable Alexa,” is expected to have a monthly fee of $5 to $10, along with a free version that has fewer features. While there were hopes for its release in October, it seems to have been postponed until 2025.
Despite being present in over 500 million devices around the world, Alexa has not made a significant impact on Amazon’s profits. The company has lost tens of billions of dollars on its device business since 2017.
