Amazon to Unveil New AI-Powered Alexa Capabilities

To bring Alexa into the era of generative artificial intelligence, Amazon is scheduled to demonstrate new features for the service on Wednesday. This comes over a decade after Amazon’s initial investment in voice assistants sparked industry-wide interest.

This event, held with its head of devices in New York, has remained largely under wraps, but sources familiar with the matter revealed that it will introduce a secret project known internally as “Banyan,” aimed at making Alexa more conversational.

Since its launch in 2014, Amazon has invested billions of dollars into Alexa, hoping to integrate the service into a range of devices and boost sales on its e-commerce platform.

Alexa, a voice-controlled software, is installed in products like smart speakers that can answer questions, play music, set timers, and serve as a hub for home automation.

Read Also: Amazon Drops Diversity, Inclusion From Annual Report

The new AI-driven Alexa will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and even act as an “agent” by taking actions for users without direct involvement, unlike the current version that handles one request at a time.

Company executives have discussed potentially charging $10 per month for the new service to recoup investments in the money-losing business.

Initially, Amazon will continue to offer the existing “Classic Alexa” for free while rolling out the new service to a limited group of consumers in the coming weeks and months.

With approximately 500 million Alexa-capable devices already in use, this revamp represents a significant financial opportunity—and risk—for Amazon.

The company has invited reporters to an event today in New York’s Tribeca neighbourhood to unveil these new advancements.

Reuters