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Last year, David Limp, Amazon’s former senior vice president of devices and services, suggested charging for a more powerful version of Alexa – and now we have an idea of how much it might cost. AND report from Reuters suggests that Amazon’s AI-powered version of Alexa could cost $5 to $10 a month on top of a Prime membership.
Sources say Reuters that Amazon intends to release a fresh Alexa in August, marking a “desperate attempt” to modernize the voice assistant. The paid version of Alexa may not require users to repeat “Alexa” when talking to the assistant. According to reports, it will be able to fulfill multiple requests in one go, such as writing a brief email and ordering takeout on Uber Eats.
As reported Reutersa more advanced Alexa could also offer the ability to “learn” from users and create routines, such as turning on a customer’s coffee pot when their alarm goes off. This is in line with a CNBC report last month that said Amazon plans to introduce an Alexa subscription that doesn’t come with Prime.
This doesn’t mean Amazon will skip the free version of Alexa. As he noticed ReutersAmazon still plans to replace the basic version with a version offering fresh generative AI features, but will place the more advanced Alexa behind a paywall. According to AI Alexa, customers will be able to ask for shopping advice, e.g. which hat and gloves to buy for a mountain expedition. Reuters. This is similar to the information that Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping chatbot, can provide.
When asked for comment by Amazon, he indicated Edge to the statement he presented Reuters: “We have already integrated generative AI into various Alexa components and are working challenging to roll out at scale – to the more than half a billion Alexa-enabled devices already in homes around the world – to enable even more proactive, personal and trusted assistance for our customers “
Over the past year, Amazon has been working to modernize its AI assistant to keep pace with AI chatbots from OpenAI, Google and Microsoft. Even Apple has gotten into the AI game with a revamped version of Siri coming to iOS 18. Amazon has already started testing elements of the fresh Alexa AI, for which users join a waitlist by saying, “Alexa, let’s talk.”