amazon alexa devices

Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa

Powered by generative AI, Alexa+ is your new personal AI assistant that gets things done—she’s smarter, more conversational, more capable, and free with Prime.

Written by Panos Panay, SVP of Devices & Services

February 26, 2025

5 min read

Inventing Alexa+ required a series of technical breakthroughs, from getting LLMs to orchestrate APIs reliably to creating all-new agentic capabilities.

Alexa+ is our next-generation AI assistant that gets things done—it solves daily problems, keeps you entertained, helps you stay connected, and can converse about virtually any topic.

Alexa+ is easy to talk to.

Alexa+ turns talk into action.

How Amazon rebuilt Alexa with generative AI

Alexa+ is personalized to you.

Alexa+ is there when you want it, and fades into the background when you don’t.

Alexa+ manages your home.

50 things to try with Alexa+

Alexa+ will be available everywhere you are.

Alexa+ has deep knowledge.

Alexa+ is built with privacy and security in mind.

Alexa+ costs $19.99 per month, but is free for all Prime members.

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Amazon (AMZN) is breathing new life into its Alexa voice assistant, outfitting the 10-year old helper with generative AI capabilities to better compete with the likes of Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Gemini and Microsoft-backed (MSFT) ChatGPT.

During an event in New York City on Wednesday, Amazon’s head of devices and services Panos Panay unveiled the company’s Alexa+, a version of Alexa that runs on Amazon’s own large language models, as well as those from Anthropic, in which Amazon has invested billions.

Available for $19 per month, and free for Prime users, Alexa+ is the company’s attempt to reinvent the assistant with agentic AI capabilities that let perform different tasks across multiple apps.

During a stage demo, Panay showed off things like how the assistant is able to remember personal preferences about people in your household such as what they like to eat, and then put them to use when you’re ordering food.

Panay also demonstrated how you can control products across your home with quick, natural voice requests. In one example, Panay asked Alexa+ if anyone had walked his dog at his house over the past few days, and the AI pulled up clips of his children walking their dog taken via a Ring camera at the front door.

Other demos showed off how you can upload documents to Alexa+ and ask specific questions about them, ask in-depth questions about your favorite sports teams, and even request and book an Uber for a friend that needs a ride home from the airport. The idea was to demonstrate that Alexa+ isn’t just meant to set timers or play music.

Conversations with the assistant were largely natural sounding, and should allow users to ask questions without having to use the stilted, AI phrases you’d otherwise have to use in the past.

Amazon’s Alexa was originally designed to serve as a gateway for Amazon customers to sign up for Prime subscriptions and as a gateway to purchase goods through the e-commerce giant’s store in a snap. But was never able to quite pull it off.

“This strategy failed and the company invested $25 billion in its Alexa division without truly revolutionizing smart homes,” Forrester VP and principal analyst Thomas Husson said in a note ahead of Amazon’s event.

Amazon stock was up about 2% following the announcement.

Amazon is pouring billions of dollars into its generative AI effort as it seeks to ensure its place as a leader in the space. In 2025, the company expects to spend a little more than $100 billion on the technology, including via new data centers and apps.

Meet Alexa Plus: Your Virtual Assistant Just Got an AI Update

She’s “smarter than she’s ever been” and is rolling out next month, Amazon announced today. The best part? Alexa Plus is free for Prime members.

Amazon also unveiled an updated Alexa logo.

Amazon’s Alexa is going to be able to do more than just talk back and do basic commands after a big new update, Amazon announced Wednesday.

Amazon unveiled the new generation of Alexa at an event in New York. The next generation of the assistant is powered by generative AI and promises a smarter, more conversational, approachable — and most importantly, proactive — virtual assistant.

“She’s smarter than she’s ever been before, but she’s also approachable,” Amazon’s Devices and Services Team Lead Panos Panay said during the event.

The new generation of Amazon Alexa, called Alexa Plus, can book dinner reservations, set reminders on your calendar, order and send gifts to loved ones and learn your routine and likes and dislikes over time to better serve you and those in your household, among other changes, Panay said.

During a live demo, the updated Alexa told Panay, “I’m not just an assistant, I’m your new best friend in the digital world. I’ve got jokes, smarts and a genuine desire to make your life easier and more fun.”

Panay emphasized that the new generation is “something that can actually take action.”

Alexa Plus can also control your smart home by monitoring your security cameras, dimming lights or turning them on or off at certain times of the day, playing music and controlling your smart TV. During the demo, Alexa also played a song and was able to move from various speakers when asked, then because it was a song from a movie (Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper from A Star is Born), Panay asked Alexa to then play the scene from the movie on the smart TV on the stage — and it complied.

“The new Alexa knows almost every instrument in your life,” Panay said. He also demonstrated how it was able to sort through his home security videos and determine the last time his dog was walked or he received a delivery at his home. Alexa is continuing to grow in popularity, according to Panay, who stated that in 2024, people were using Alexa 20% more than in 2023.

Alexa Plus is $20 a month, but free if you’re a Prime member, and it will start to roll out next month, Panay said. With Alexa Plus, you will also get to use the upcoming Alexa.com.

However, according to a recent CNET survey, only 23% of participants said they would pay more for additional AI features in voice assistants, so only time will tell if this stands in the way of Alexa Plus given that many Alexa owners are also Prime members.

Read more: New Reports Say Smart Device Cyberattacks More Than Doubled In 2024: Should You Worry?

Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo, demonstrated Alexa Plus and said the update doesn’t only work with Amazon products. It will pair with partners, including UberEats, Spotify, Dyson, Ticketmaster, Grubhub, OpenTable and more.

Andy Jassy on stage during the presentation on Feb. 26, 2025 in New York.

Before Panay took the stage to make the Alexa upgrade announcement, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s president and CEO, highlighted Amazon’s AI uses they have already implemented, such as Rufus, a shopping assistant on Amazon and Amazon Bedrock. Jassy said Amazon has more than 1,000 Generative AI programs currently in use or being built.

“New experiences that we only dreamed of before are going to be possible with generative AI,” Jassy said, adding that the company uses AI “to solve real customer problems.”

Jassy also teased even more Amazon updates on the horizon, when “drones will get packages to customers in less than an hour eventually.”