Amazon Alexa+ event liveblog: New AI services and more
The upgraded AI assistant will be available free to Prime members soon.
Amazon just unveiled Alexa+ at its New York City event. The AI-supercharged upgrade to Amazon's longstanding virtual assistant is designed to be more conversational and build on an improved persistent memory of your voice chats with it. The new system was shown off in a series of live demos from Amazon executives, starting with Panos Panay, the head of Amazon's Devices and Services division. Among some of the new "agentic" tricks from Alexa+: Real-time Uber and OpenTable restaurant reservations; voice-to-text transcriptions; more detailed TV, movie and music queries; and better overall personalization options.
Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month, but it's free to Amazon Prime members. Early access to the upgraded service will start in March, with wider availability opening up in subsequent months.
Scroll down to see our coverage of the event as it unfolded, and stay tuned for updates and first impressions from the hands-on area.
117 Updates
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In the meantime, thank you again for joining us on our liveblog of Amazon's Alexa+ event today. We hope it was as scintillating for you as it was for us. Send us any questions about Alexa+, follow our social media accounts (via the handle @engadget) and tune in to the Engadget Podcast tomorrow morning at about 11am ET on our YouTube channel. We'll be diving deeper into Amazon's announcements from today.
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Sorry for the long absence, but our team was quite quickly ushered into a demo area to check out the new Alexa+. In general, we didn't see a lot that was different from what was shown in the presentation. We watched as different Amazon executives ordered groceries via Alexa+ and Amazon Fresh, saw other execs book seats at restaurants and make reservations with professional repair services or send documents to family members. We're still making sense of today's announcements and will likely publish related coverage on our site later, so do check it out.
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I still can't believe we didn't get some kind of new Echo, but I guess AI really does rule the world now.
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Alexa+ will cost $19.99, but will be free for Prime subscribers.
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We have one more video recapping what we've seen, but that seems to be all otherwise. So, no new devices then.
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Panos Panay is back to wrap things up.
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Early access to Alexa+ will start to roll out next month, and in waves over subsequent months. It'll work on "almost every" Alexa device Amazon has shipped.
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Alexa+ is free to Prime members, but $20 per month for everyone else.
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Panay says "we're moving the world from chatbots to something entirely new." He says along with Alexa+ comes a new phone app and Alexa.com website.
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Here's Panay again to wrap up.
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I should note that we've had a few moments over the course of this where Alexa+ starts talking before the presenter is finished.
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Using voice controls with Alexa to create a list and order groceries.
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Rausch is now giving a look at future nuances for Alexa+. He uses Amazon Fresh to request various groceries and ingredients, and we see Rausch's cart update in real time.
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Alexa using the Suno agent to create a love song about bodega cats.
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He shows of an integration between Alexa+ and the app Suno that lets him create a romantic country song about his cat. (Yeah.)
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Rausch says he believes the future will be full of AI agents, and that in a world full of AI, those agents should interact with each other.
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Rausch says "a true agent does not require babysitting" in an open tab. So now we're moving onto a demo where he requests Alexa to find a professional that can fix a broken oven in his home. The assistant then pulls up a list of businesses that can help and makes sure to confirm the details of the resulting appointment. (How comfortable all of this is on an Alexa device that doesn't have a display is another question.)
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Using the new Alexa+ "Book it" command to confirm a purchase.
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You can finalize plans like those by saying "Alexa, book it."
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Using Alexa to order a car service and compare prices.
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He uses Alexa+ to draft up and schedule a text to notify his friend about that booking.
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The next demo here has Rausch booking a reservation and a ride with Alexa+ by tapping into its OpenTable and Uber integrations.
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Another look at a list of content partners that will work with Alexa+ at launch.
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Rausch notes how Alexa+ draws on "hundreds of specialized experts" for its knowledge. He says on day one, it'll work with "tens of thousands" of other partners. I see Uber, Sonos, Samsung, Xbox and a whole bunch of others on the screen.
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Using Alexa to set up a ticket alert for Red Sox vs Yankees tickets.
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How did that go again, Sam? (I kid.)
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Again, the demo is really hammering home how you can interact with Alexa more conversationally that you would in the past. He gets some details about some of the Red Sox's signings in the offseason, asks to pull up tickets and then shows how Alexa can set up a ticket monitor and keep an eye out for cheaper seats for a specific game.
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All this sports talk has seen our team get more lively and engaged than they have been at any other point of today's presentation lol.
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As a Yankee fan, I would just like to point out that Rausch conveniently forgot to mention who played in the World Series last year.
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A selection of content partners that work with Alexa.
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Rausch, who says he is a Red Sox fan, asks Alexa how many World Series titles the Red Sox have won this decade compared to the Yankees. (As a native Bostonian, I am having fun now.)
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He's going through more of the technical details behind Alexa+. He shouts out Amazon Nova and Anthropic but calls it "model-agnostic."
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Daniel Rausch, Amazon VP of Alexa and Echo
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Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo, is on stage now.
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We see a video of kids basically using Alexa to create little fantastical stories, with the assistant requesting info and adapting on the fly.
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New Explore and Stories features from Alexa
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Segal is announcing Explore with Alexa and Stories with Alexa. They're designed to "inspire a kids' curiosity and creativity."
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Segal is essentially showing off how Alexa can read a calendar, set reminders and quickly transition between different topics in natural language, based on information you've given it.
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Using Alexa to add events to your calendar
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Segal says you can now share "just about anything" with Alexa, from emails to PDFs to photos hand-written notecards. She asks Alexa if she can solar to her house based on a HOA document she's shared earlier. Alexa then responds that she can, recalling a few details from that doc (presumably) along the way.
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Mara Segal, Director, Alexa
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Using Alexa to help remember if someone has walked the dog recently.
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Here's Mara Segal, Director of Alexa.
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"Have you seen any packages around the house yesterday," Panay asks, and Alexa brings up corresponding clips of deliveries. It even notes what's in the packages, it sounded like?
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Moving onto Ring integration, Panay is basically using Alexa to check his video feed outside of his house. He asks Alexa if "anyone has walked the dog in the last couple of days," and the assistant pulls up clips his camera recorded of people walking his husky.
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Using natural language controls to jump from playing a song to the exact scene in the movie where it's being played.
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That whole bit becomes a little less useful if you need Amazon Music and Prime Video to make it work, but it's neat.
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Now he moves the song over the Fire TV set up on the stage. From there, he asks Alexa to "jump to the scene in the movie" and, after one hiccup, it starts up A Star is Born and plays the scene where that song is featured.
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Panos Panay uses natural language to control where music is coming from.
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Panay says how "there's no more Alexa speak" with Alexa+. You just talk as you would, and it'll do what you need. (Of course, we'll have to see about that ourselves.)
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He asks Alexa to "move the music over to the right side of the room," and sure enough, the Echo speakers set up on the left side of our space here shut off.
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A closer look at Alexa's new UI.
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Panay says the music experience with Alexa has improved dramatically. He asks Alexa about "that song Bradley Cooper sings with Lady Gaga as a duet," and Alexa correctly identifies it as "Shallow" and begins playing it through Amazon Music.
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Panay is talking up how Alexa+ will make the assistant's various smart home integrations easier to handle.
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Calling on Alexa+ brings up a little blue swirl at the bottom of the screen, which appears to change in subtle ways depending on what you're requesting. Panay says those are called "Alexacons."
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Panay is doing this whole demo on a large Echo Show display, by the way.
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Alexa weighs in on the best pizza in NYC.
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Panay asks for pizza recommendations nearby, and Alexa+ gives a few recommendations back. The idea is that you can engage with the assistant in a more natural manner, not having to make stilted, more siloed requests one at a time.
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Alexa showing off her new personality.
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Panay says Alexa+ has contextual awareness. It understands and remembers the conversation you're currently having.
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Panay says Alexa+ can understand tone and respond accordingly. He only said "Alexa" once during that last little bit, didn't need to say "Hey Alexa" each time.
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Panay is chatting with Alexa+. He notes how he's giving a presentation, clearly trying to show how the updated assistant can comprehend and handle more complex conversations.
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It's time for live demos
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Now it's live demo time. Panay admits he wasn't scared up until now. Everything coming up is "fully live."
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Panay says Alexa+ will remember your favorite movies, find all your favorite smart devices and "learn the rhythm of your life."
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Alexa+ is the next version of Amazon's AI assistant.
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Panay says it's smarter, conversational, more useful and more personalized. (He keeps referring to Alexa as "she," which I'm trying not to do but forgive me if I slip up.)
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It's called Alexa+.
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After comparing the new Alexa to a symphony, we have a little reel showcasing the updated assistant. We hear her giving dinner ideas, completing calendar and smart home requests, and so on, all in a more natural conversational tone.
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If only Amazon gave people time at the start of this event to mute their Alexa devices so they didn't all go off repeatedly during this video or event.
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Panay says an AI chatbot on its own doesn't get Amazon to their vision of Alexa. They need something that's easy to use and "can actually take action."
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Panay basically saying how it can still be frustrating to use Alexa today, but that generative AI will help rectify those existing pain points. Go on...
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Now we've cut to a video of different people using Alexa in various ways. They're all delighted, of course.
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Panay says people use Alexa 20 percent more in 2024 than they did in 2023.
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Panos Panay, Senior Vice President, Devices and Services
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Panay is asking us to think back to the first times we've used Alexa. Says it was "mind-blowing" for him. There's that classic Panos hyperbole.
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Panay says "the re-architecture of all of Alexa has happened" and reiterates how proud he is of his team.
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Panos alert!
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Now we're moving onto Alexa. Jassy says the team has been working onto improvements for several months. With that said, here's Panos Panay.
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I don't think I realized how deep Amazon was going to go down the AI rabbit hole this soon into the event. I can see why they didn't want to livestream this presentation themselves.
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Jassy is broadly talking more about how Amazon needs to be building lots of generative AI applications and how they're improving their "AI building blocks" based on the feedback they've received so far.
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Amazon's Rufus is designed to act like an informed sales person to help answers questions about products.
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Has anyone ever used the Rufus AI on Amazon? I hate it myself.
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He's now talking up Rufus, their AI shopping assistant. He says tens of millions of people use it every month.
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An example of AI already in use on Amazon.
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It's been a lot of talk about inventory management and using AI to summarize and sift through the copious amounts of customer reviews on Amazon. I'm seated.
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Jassy says Amazon has a little over 1,000 generative AI applications that it's built or is currently building so far. He notes a customer service chatbot they've launched for the Amazon app and another gen AI application that's supposed to make it easier for sellers on Amazon to fill out product pages. Still recapping here.
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Jassy is basically talking up the various steps the company has taken into AI thus far and its different models.
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Advantages of Amazon's Tranium 2
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Yep, to Jeff's point, none of this is news so far.
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He's talking up the "power and magic" of generative AI and how customers are "pining" for better AI price-performance. This is the preamble phase of the presentation, if you're not familiar with these things.
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Amazon talking a big game about AI
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Andy Jassy, President and CEO of Amazon
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Jassy reiterates how Amazon uses AI to "solve real customer problems."
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Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon is out to kick us off.
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2 minute warning yall!
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Looks like there's going to be some TV news, as there's a big screen set up on stage as well.
Changes coming to Fire TV?
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That didn't take long: The best seats in the house are already taken as the clock ticks down to the starting time.
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There's also line of Echo Shows set up on stage, presumably for an upcoming demo.
A lineup of Echo Shows on stage at the Amazon event.
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Looks like we have some Echo Show displays and a TV on the presentation stage, so we'll likely see how any upgraded Alexa works with those.
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With the doors to the event space now open, journalists are taking their seats ahead of the 10AM ET start time.
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My bad, I got a little overexcited about potential new stuff.
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Sam I hate to burst your bubble but that looks familiar... Kinda like the Echo Studio that's already available! But maybe it has hidden... depths?
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A new device spotted at Amazon's upcoming device presentation.
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On the way in, I also spied what looks to be the next-gen Echo. No details yet, but it looks bigger and beefier, kind of like an Apple HomePod.
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Yes Sam, I saw him walk by, shouted "Panos!" like we were old friends, and he came over to shake hands and say hi. He even said "Thanks for the kind article." Classic media-trained professional.
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Welcome to the Amazon event
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Doors to the presentation room just opened, but before we went in, Cherlynn was able to say hi to Amazon SVP of Devices and Services Panos Panay.
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The early bird gets the worm — or, in this case, first crack at the impressive breakfast spread that Amazon has arranged for journalists covering its event.
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The Amazon logo is on display outside of the Manhattan venue hosting today's event.
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As a reminder, Amazon won't be livestreaming this presentation, so you won't be able to go watch the company's executives for yourselves. In addition to our liveblog here, you might be able to also get updates from Amazon's newsroom and social media accounts, if you like. But staying here is probably more fun!
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Panos Panay holding an Amazon Kindle Colorsoft onstage at a launch event.
We're expecting to see Amazon's senior vice president of the devices and services team Panos Panay today. I had a chance to interview Panay for Engadget at the Kindle launch last year, and let's just say that he oversees a gigantic scope of products. He shared his (and his team's) approach to making products, balancing the desire to predict a customer's needs with the philosophy of not overcomplicating things. I'm sure I won't have this interview in the back of my mind as I watch Amazon launch new products today.
"Let's not try and reinvent things that people don't need reinvented." — Panos Panay
Read more: Panos Panay on launching his first products since moving to Amazon
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As a refresher, we likely won't be seeing any new Kindles today, since the company just launched a whole new slate of those late last year. There was the Kindle Colorsoft and the Kindle Scribe 2, as well as a new Kindle Paperwhite and entry-level Kindle. Definitely no chance they show off a new Kindle just months after that October 16 event. Right? Right???
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We'll be able to enter Amazon's event space in NYC at about 9am ET, and will be sure to start adding pictures to this liveblog so you can all feel like you're here with us. It won't be the same (unless you can somehow smell and sense from afar) but hey, pictures of snacks provided by mega corporations at their media events are all part of the event coverage experience.
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Amazon Echo Show 21
To whet your appetite, here's our writer Lawrence Bonk's roundup of what we've learned from reports and rumors about what Amazon might announce today. In short, "Alexa is likely to get most of the attention, while new Echo devices may accompany it."
Read more: Amazon is holding a devices event on February 26, here's what to expect
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We don't know much about what to expect out of today's event, other than some kind of Alexa update. The company's been teasing its next-gen Assistant for awhile now, promising that it can conduct more natural conversations and executive more complex tasks than the existing version. It will certainly be a welcome improvement if that happens to be true.
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Hello everyone and welcome to our liveblog of Amazon's devices event. We're so pleased you're here with us today. The company will be properly kicking things off at 10am ET, and at that time you'll find our senior reporters Jeff Dunn and Sam Rutherford joining me on this liveblog. Jeff will be bringing you most of the text while Sam will be adding photos to our coverage. I'm helping too, I promise.