Will Alexa soon become more intelligent? Amazon is working on a comprehensive update, but the planned monthly price is not the only problem

Amazon plans to release a major update for Alexa later this year. This will (of course) place a major focus on artificial intelligence.

That's why this is important: Of the market leaders in the tech world, Amazon is still lagging behind when it comes to integrating AI features.

With artificial intelligence integrated into Alexa, the company now wants to catch up with the competition.

In detail: Like the US economic channel CNBC According to reports citing internal Amazon sources, Alexa is set to receive a comprehensive update later this year.

• As a result, Amazon will equip voice assistance with new AI functions that can keep up with “the competition”, i.e. OpenAI ChatGPT or Google Gemini.
• This should give Alexa a larger and smarter functionality to create a similar “wow effect” as at the launch in 2014.
• The basis for the revision of Alexa will be Amazon's own Large Language Model (LLM), which is being developed under the name “Titan”.

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Monthly subscription planned: The CNBC report also cites the cost of such an AI update for Amazon. However, the costs should be passed on to the customers.

• According to internal sources, the company estimates that each AI query executed will cost around two cents.
• In order to make the new Alexa profitable, Amazon plans not to offer the new features as part of the regular Prime subscription.
• A potential customer base already exists: According to the company, more than 500 million Alexa-enabled devices were sold by last year.

Instead, an additional subscription fee is to be introduced, the amount of which is still being discussed internally.

• Among other things, a monthly price of $20 is mentioned, which both covers the costs and makes a profit from the new features.
• But there is also internal resistance to this amount. In order to compete against the competition mentioned at the beginning, such as ChatGPT, a single-digit monthly price is also being discussed.
• Plans like these leaked out at the beginning of the year:

Alexa has been “disappointing” so far: The reason for the restructuring towards artificial intelligence is not exclusively due to the success that Google, Microsoft and Co. are now celebrating. Even taken on its own, Alexa is not in a good position internally.

The language assistance department is now subject to strict profit targets since Andy Jassy became Amazon CEO in 2021. Jassy is also said to be disappointed with Alexa's functionality.

• An anecdote in the CNBC report explains that Jassy himself failed to get the results of a sports game announced, even though they were fairly easy to find on the Internet.
• In general, Amazon considers the reliability of Alexa's answers and explanations to be “still room for improvement.”

With the AI ​​extension, you can kill two birds with one stone: the functionality becomes more extensive and precise; at the same time, a monthly subscription would fit in with the new, profit-oriented Alexa strategy.

A first update focused on artificial intelligence was introduced last September:

Turbulence threatens: However, according to CNBC, unnamed employees from Amazon's Alexa department have doubts as to whether the focus on artificial intelligence is feasible.

• When Alexa was released in 2014, it was “a great idea that perhaps just came too early.”
• According to the Alexa team, the voice assistant has now degenerated into an “expensive alarm clock, a weather report and a Spotify player” – an assessment that our tech editor Patrick has already expressed in a similar form:

However, a change of course also requires the right staff with the appropriate expertise, which is no longer available in the Alexa department.

• Amazon has at least partially taken care of this itself, as more than 36,000 employees were laid off over the last year, including many from the Alexa development department.
• At the same time, the AI ​​boom of the past few months has also ensured that companies like OpenAI have a head start when it comes to securing the most experienced and best developers.
• Accordingly, the CNBC report expresses doubts as to whether the large AI project is actually feasible on this scale.

When will we find out more? Outside of the goal of releasing the update this year, there is no further information on a launch date or an official announcement.