Amazon is undergoing a massive upgrade to its smart assistant Alexa, aiming to create a smarter and more powerful AI assistant. Amazon CEO Andy Jesse revealed the news on a recent earnings call and said the new generation of Alexa will have the ability to perform tasks rather than just provide information. This upgrade involves the reconstruction of Alexa's underlying architecture, which will introduce a new basic model and plan to launch a paid subscription service. While the upgrade process faces technical challenges, Amazon is confident in the new version of Alexa and expects it to bring new profit growth points to the company. This article will explain in detail Amazon's upgrade plan for Alexa, as well as possible challenges and opportunities.
During a recent third-quarter earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company is making major improvements to its smart assistant Alexa. He said that in the future, Alexa will become a more "smart" assistant, not only able to answer questions and summarize information, but also take action on behalf of users.
Jesse notes that the next generation of smart assistants and generative AI applications will have stronger capabilities to perform various tasks rather than just providing information. "You can imagine that our Alexa will be very good in this regard," he said.
To achieve this, Amazon is restructureing Alexa's "brain" with plans to launch a series of new basic models that will be announced in the near future. Amazon first announced as early as 2023 that it would transform Alexa, planning to introduce generative artificial intelligence technology into assistant functions.
It is understood that Amazon has encountered some technical challenges in the reconstruction process of Alexa. Currently, the company plans to use the model of the invested startup Anthropic to replace the original Alexa model. It has been reported that in the improved version, Alexa faced slow response problems when turning on smart lights, and even took six seconds to respond to user requests.
The new generation of Alexa, codenamed "Remarkable Alexa", is expected to offer a paid plan of $5 to $10 per month, and will also offer a less-functional free plan. While reports have been reported that the assistant will be launched in October, it seems to have encountered some delays at the moment, with the expected release date being delayed until 2025.
Although Alexa has been used in more than 500 million devices worldwide, it has contributed little to Amazon's profits. Amazon has lost tens of billions of dollars in its equipment business since 2017, putting pressure on the company's financial situation.
Key points:
1. Amazon CEO Andy Jesse announced that it will transform Alexa and launch a smarter assistant.
2. The new version of Alexa will have the ability to perform tasks and plans to launch a new basic model.
⏳3. “Remarkable Alexa” is expected to be launched in 2025, with a paid plan of $5 to $10 per month.
Amazon's major upgrade to Alexa marks a new strategic direction in the AI field. Whether it can successfully reverse Alexa's loss situation and enhance its market competitiveness is worthy of continuous attention. The final performance of "Remarkable Alexa" will become a key indicator for testing Amazon's AI strategy.