AI: Amazon Alexa AI revamped version this month. RTZ #623
...first of other AI Voice revamps by Apple Siri, Google Gemini et al in 2025
Regular readers here know that it’s been a long road for an LLM AI revamp of Amazon Alexa for some time now. It’s part of a broader landscape of similar ‘Voice AI’ upgrades at Apple for Siri, and Google for Google Assistant swap with Google Gemini Voice with an LLM AI revamp.
And as I’ve discussed before, AI Voice is a tough modality for a whole host of technology, cultural and legal reasons. All in the context of a frontal multimodal Voice effort by OpenAI and other native AI companies.
So it’s encouraging to hear we may get to see a new Amazon Alexa service revamped with Generative AI on February 26. That is if Amazon execs greenlight it on Feb 14 on a ‘Go/No Go’ decision day.
As Reuters explains in “Amazon's AI revamp of Alexa assistant nears unveiling”:
“Amazon prepares to release Alexa generative AI revamp after delays”
“Amazon invites press to event in late February”
“Alexa could come with price tag of $5 to $10 per month”
“Amazon is set to release its long-awaited - and delayed - Alexa generative artificial intelligence voice service, said three people familiar with the matter, and has scheduled a press event for later this month to preview it.”
“Once released, it would mark the most significant upgrade to the product since its initial introduction accelerated a wave of digital assistants more than a decade ago.”
And investments of tens of billions by former CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. Here’s what the plans look like going forward:
“Amazon on Wednesday sent press invites to an event to be held on February 26 in New York featuring the head of its devices and services team, Panos Panay. A spokesperson said the event is Alexa-focused, while declining to elaborate.”
The Amazon team has big aspirations for the event:
“The new generative AI-powered Alexa represents at once a huge opportunity for Amazon, which counts more than half a billion Alexa-enabled devices in the market, and a tremendous risk. Amazon is hoping the revamp, designed to be able to converse with users, can convert some of its hundreds of millions of users into paying customers in an effort to generate a return for the unprofitable business.”
“The AI service will be able to respond to multiple prompts in sequence and, company executives have said, even act as an “agent” on behalf of users by taking actions for them without their direct involvement. That contrasts with the current iteration, which generally handles only a single request at a time.”
“Executives have scheduled a meeting, known as a "Go/No-go," for February 14. There they will make a final decision on the "street readiness" of Alexa's generative AI revamp, according to the people and an internal planning document seen by Reuters.”
It all comes of course in a crowded field for AI Voice as I mentioned earlier:
“Alexa's revamp carries with it all the challenges inherent in now-familiar generative AI chatbots from OpenAI, Apple, Alphabet and others including the possibility of fabricated answers, known as hallucinations. With access to Alexa available in cars, televisions, thermostats and mobile phones, it could become an essential daily tool for scheduling and even shopping.”
An additional tweak here is an antiicpated subscription charge, likely to cover some of the variable costs of running inference based LLM AI services I’ve discussed previously.
“Initially, Amazon plans to roll out the new Alexa service to a limited number of users and will not charge for it, the people said, though it has considered a $5 to $10 monthly fee. The company will also continue to offer what it is calling “Classic Alexa,” the version broadly available today for free. One of the people said Amazon has discontinued adding new offerings to Classic Alexa.”
Voice assistant services are a decade plus long area of competition amongst big tech companies:
“While Apple's Siri voice assistant preceded Alexa's 2014 release by three years, the Amazon service supercharged the acceptance of voice assistants. But for many people, Alexa is now used for little more than kitchen timers and weather updates due to its lack of significant overhauls in the last few years.”
And the inspiration for these services come from the founders down:
“Alexa is the brainchild of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who envisioned a service that would resemble the voice-activated computers on TV's "Star Trek." The hope was that once perfected, users would turn to the voice assistant for hundreds of everyday tasks like turning on lights, preheating the oven, accessing the internet, playing music, writing emails and summoning taxis.”
“Someday in the future - that might be years or decades away - it could answer everything that you would ever ask it,” Amazon’s then-chief of devices, Dave Limp, said nearly a decade ago.”
If successful, the subscriptions could add up to notable incremental revenues:
“Analysts at Bank of America estimate Amazon could generate $600 million annually if 10% of active users, which it estimates at around 100 million devices, pay $5 per month for the service.”
A key aspect of the new service will be AI with memory of user preferences, also something I’ve discussed in earlier posts.
“The new Alexa is designed to remember customer preferences to help make music or restaurant recommendations and allow users to give multiple prompts in a single session, so that, say, one could later modify a hamburger order before it is sent out for delivery, the people said.”
On a positive note,
“It will be compatible with existing Alexa devices, said the people.”
“Amazon will rely, at least in part, on artificial intelligence software from startup Anthropic – in which it has invested $8 billion – to underpin the AI in Alexa, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.”
All this points to 2025 being a busy year for voice enabled LLM AI devices.
Amazon’s Alexa will just be one of the first up at bat this AI Tech Wave. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)