Amazon offered a rather more detailed have a look at its AI platform's real-world competition on the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Amazon plans to capitalize on the massive presence of its devices in the house in addition to consumers' existing familiarity with its Alexa brand.
“97 percent of the devices we’ve ever shipped can support Alexa+,” noted Amazon Alexa and Echo VP Daniel Rausch in an interview at CES. He said the newest figures available to Amazon suggest the corporate has sold greater than 600 million devices and the “overwhelming majority” will support its revamped AI assistant Alexa+.
Announced early last yr, Alexa+ is Amazon's future within the generative AI market. It offers more expressive voices, access to world knowledge much like other AI assistants and AI agents that perform tasks on behalf of the client – reminiscent of calling an Uber or ordering food. The company has continued to expand access to the AI platform, with greater than 1,000,000 Alexa customers gaining access as of June last yr, and now “tens of thousands and thousands” can decide to upgrade to the AI assistant.
Amazon doesn't have an actual date for when Alexa+ can be available to everyone; The company is initially focused on making AI available to all Prime members.
What Amazon will soon must prove beyond availability is whether or not customers will actually use its AI. This is where Rausch believes Alexa's existing footprint can be helpful.
“I believe there can be an entire range of AI solutions for patrons. I believe Alexa can be certainly one of the foundational assistants,” he said. While he believes there’ll at all times be some specialized AIs available on the market, reminiscent of people who concentrate on one thing, reminiscent of legal assistant work, there can be just a few “nameable, basic, high-skill AIs,” and that's where Alexa is available in.
“I believe certainly one of the benefits that Alexa has is the familiarity of consumers that thousands and thousands of consumers already interact with on an ongoing basis,” Rausch said. “It's available in the house, within the environment, within the voice, in essentially the most natural interface. I actually consider that is our opportunity to grow,” he added.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
thirteenth–fifteenth October 2026
Alexa's home plans come as Apple announced it might partner with Google's Gemini for Siri, while other AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude compete in a wide range of use cases starting from research to healthcare to coding and more.
Just before CES, Amazon announced a option to access Alexa over the online, in addition to a redesigned Alexa app that focuses on a chatbot-like interface. At the conference like Amazon partners Samsung, BMW and Oura presented their Alexa integrations.
The company also touted its recent acquisition of Bee, a wearable AI device that enables you to record conversations and gain insights. Customers can interact with Bee via text or voice chat.
According to Rausch, Alexa and Bee can be more integrated in the longer term. However, he added that Bee has value as a standalone brand, calling it “a vital and endearing experience.”
