Thought Leadership
Amazon is planning to redesign its voice assistant Alexa and equip it with powerful, generative AI.
However, instead of relying on its own models, the company is using technology from AI start-up Anthropic, as reported by Reuters. Its Claude models in particular have outperformed Amazon’s own AI in tests. The new Alexa version is due to be released in October and will be offered as a paid premium model. Amazon hopes that this will finally generate more sales, as previous sales attempts via Alexa have been less successful. Nevertheless, there are internal doubts as to whether users are willing to pay for a function that was previously free.
Alexa, which is mainly accessed via Amazon TVs and Echo devices, can set timers, play music, act as a central hub for smart home controls and answer one-off questions.
However, Amazon’s attempts to convince users to shop via Alexa to generate more revenue have been largely unsuccessful, and the business remains unprofitable. Therefore, the company’s management has emphasized that 2024 is a crucial year for Alexa to finally show that it can generate meaningful revenue – and the revamped paid version is seen as a way to do this and keep up with the competition.
