Amazon may soon launch new AI-powered Alexa: What to expect

Amazon Alexa

In September 2023, when generative AI was talk of the town — and in some sense it still is — Amazon previewed an all-new Alexa. Amazon said the new Alexa will be based on a new large language model (LLM) that’s been custom-built and “specifically optimised for voice interactions, and the things we know our customers love—getting real-time information, efficient smart home control, and maximising their home entertainment.” Now, a report by The Wall Street Journal reveals that Amazon could launch AI-powered Alexa in the next few weeks.

The report also mentions that employees are skeptical about the new version of AI Alexa. The report quotes an employee of the Alexa team who said that Amazon is rushing the launch “even though “the technology isn’t there.”

An earlier report by Fortune suggested that Amazon was way behind on making Alexa “the best personal assistant” as it has been facing organisational as well as technical challenges.

When it previewed the new Alexa, Amazon said generative AI has “enabled us to enhance our text-to-speech technology, using a large transformer model to make Alexa much more expressive and attuned to conversational cues.” However, reports suggest that Amazon is not close to what it had in mind.

It has also been reported that from 2017-2021, Amazon lost close to $25 billion from its devices division.

Pay more for a smarter Alexa

Till now, users just had to buy an Echo device to get Alexa up and running. However, Amazon has plans to make people pay for the new Alexa. As per the report, employees feel that a lot of users might not be too kicked to pay for a generative AI service. While other generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini have paid versions, they also offer free, slightly toned-down versions as well. It’s not clear whether Amazon will have both paid and free versions of Alexa.