Shop E Store Amazon has just taken the covers of its new version of Alexa, called Alexa+, in an event in New York.
With the new head of devices and services, Panay Panos, giving an emotion welcome to the new voice assistant with AI, many impressive features were shown.
On a level, Alexa+ takes everything you expect from Alexa and makes it more simple, faster and more intuitive, but there is much more here, including a large part of the new Alexa that really did not talk.
Fortunately, I was in the event to discover a little more …
Alexa+ renova every part of Alexa’s experience
Amazon hastened to point out that there are more than 600 million Alexa devices and thanks to regular sales in Echo speakers, there are many millions of people that Alexa use every day.
That gives Alexa+ an immediate advantage, but it also means that if it doesn’t work, millions of people will get angry about that.
Therefore, focusing on Alexa’s basic skills, such as entertainment and intelligent home control, makes a lot of sense to show Alexa +’s new skills.
You may wonder how far voice control can evolve when you will basically play any song you want easily, but Amazon was anxious to show how dynamic it is Alexa+ now.
Alexa+ knows much more than the original Alexa, so you can ask for music with more complex phrases.
You could say that you are having a dinner and you want some music; The original Alexa will collect the word “party” and play party music: Alexa+ will detect the broader context and give you dinner music.
In depth: Alexa Plus Explanator: What is and how much will it cost?
Perhaps the most powerful demonstration was to describe a song or a movie and have it to appear. Just like making a friend remind you of a title you forget, Alexa+ can do the same.
On stage we saw a demonstration in which Alexa+ was able to jump to a scene in Prime Video Movie, based on a described song of the film, something that comes to the service in the future as his skills evolve.
Alexa’s routines will be much easier with Alexa+
If Alexa has a smart home controlled by Alexa, he will be familiar with Alexa’s routines.
They allow you to make personalized automation for your connected devices. This has been done with an IF-Tis-that configuration through the Alexa application in the past, but through Alexa+ you leave all this process and only say what you want.
The best part is that you do not have to use a precise language it currently does.
Alexa+ can make educated conjectures from broader contextual information. For example, you can say “Alexa, children are taking too long to go to bed at night, create a routine to help this process.”
Alexa+ will then create a routine that attenuates the lights a bit and makes relevant changes to encourage everyone to launch at bedtime.
He tells him what the routine will do and that routine will be kept in the Alexa application as usual, and can edit it.
But, more importantly, you don’t have to click on each parameter to configure it first. This is great, because many people will probably be discouraged by routines because they can be complicated.
Alexa+ will do this much easier, so you can configure voice controls describing what Alexa wants and letting the details solve.
Until now, what?
You may be thinking that Alexa+ is not so interesting. It speeds what you can do and if you are happy with the experience, you may not see the point.
But there is much more from a perspective of AI, which makes Alexa+ more competitive when it comes to administering his life.
The first important thing is the scan of documents. This is the kind of things in which all AI is good, either Siri, Gemini or Chatgpt, obtaining summary information is easy.
Alexa will also do this, with the ability to send an email or take a photo, and feed it in Alexa+.
Before panicing on privacy, these are not data that the model learns and then shares, it is private for you and you can always access these documents and eliminate them.
But once Alexa+ has ingested the details, you can access them through Alexa, so that he can plan, find information and add reminders to his calendar.
That could be anything, from a legal document as a lease, where Alexa+ can choose terms and conditions (as if he can have a pet cat), or something with specific details, such as the times and reserve references for that football tournament to which he registered.
These skills are completely new to Alexa, which give you a more personalized experience, and something you can access through many different routes.
Alexa.com is a large part of the puzzle
Amazon mentioned Alexa.com in Alexa +’s revelation, but he has not shown it and did not say much about it.
But for Alexa+users, Alexa.com will become a browser access point for the service. While that may not be something that can find useful for old Alexa, this is where Alexa+ more like other AI platforms, such as Chatgpt or Google Gemini.
You can immerse yourself in a desk to start planning things, with all the information and progress that makes accessible despite the application (new) Alexa or by voice or screen on Echo devices.
It remains to be seen exactly how this experience will develop, but with Alexa+ being free of subscribers of Amazon Prime, potentially gives access to tools that other services could charge.
I also mentioned the new application. Alexa+ users will get a new experience in the application, which will allow access not only to the types of things offered by the current application, but also to this more dynamic version of Alexa through the voice and a written experience.
Again, this will be more like Google Gemini’s experience and should give great flexibility.
Alexa+ is about doing things
One of the key points that Amazon was anxious to stress was that Alexa+ is about being useful and doing things.
While many current offers of AI will help you start things, Alexa+ will take advantage of the wide range of partners that already has to solve problems and join all points.
That will allow Alexa+ to act as an online agent for you, using your accounts to make reservations, send invitations and make arrangements.
It is not just about finding a restaurant, it is about reserving a table, booking an Uber and sharing details with friends, although a conversation.
Alexa has been really good to join the points so far. Alexa’s open approach to work with almost all the brands you can think of (or rather, each brand that acknowledges that Alexa was essential for a connected experience) has facilitated the construction of smart houses.
With Alexa+ the capacity uses the conversation language in a full range of services should make Alexa much more powerful and easier to use.
Of course, there is a great interaction between Amazon devices, with Fire TV that benefits from Alexa+ and compatibility with the new Ring smart video search function, for example.
With Amazon who also owns Smart Home Stalwarts such as Blink and Eero, he would expect this functionality to expand as Alexa+ evolves.
