Latest news with #AlexaPlus
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
One of the Best Alexa+ Features Has Been Delayed
Alexa+ is Amazon's upgraded assistant with generative AI for better natural language understanding. New features include a desktop experience for sharing information to enhance Alexa's knowledge. Web interface for Alexa+ was delayed, now expected no sooner than July 31st. Earlier this year, Amazon announced a revamped and upgraded assistant experience called "Alexa+." This "smarter, more conversation, more capable" assistant is free for Prime subscribers, but you'll need to wait a bit longer for one of its best features. Alexa+ is a new version of Alexa that has been infused with generative AI. Think of it like Amazon's version of Gemini. The promise is that it will be better at understanding natural language—which is also Google's hope in replacing Google Assistant. Amazon also claims it will get better over time as it adjusts to your schedules and preferences. One of the features that Amazon showed off alongside Alexa+ was a new desktop expirience. This is where you can share information with Alexa to build up its knowledge base. A few examples Amazon gave were sending a picture of a live music schedule to have Alexa add the details to your calendar, and uploading study materials to have Alexa build a quiz for you. Alexa+ will also be available on the desktop in a similar format as ChatGPT, where you can enter prompts. Now, these features will also be present in the mobile apps, but there previously wasn't a great way to do any of this on the desktop. Amazon's web apps are notoriously not very good. Originally, the web interface was supposed to launch by the end of June—which we've obviously already passed. The new target is "no sooner than July 31," according to documents seen by The Washington Post. Amazon says "around 90 percent of the features announced in February are already available" for Alexa+, but the web interface is not one of them. You can still sign up to be notified when Alexa+ is available for you, or skip the line and buy an Echo Show 8, 15, or 21 to get early access. For non-Prime subscribers, Alexa+ is $15 per month or $139 per year. Via: AFTVnews
The Verge
20-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
I asked Alexa Plus to tackle my to-do list — it mostly failed
One of the best features of Amazon's new Alexa Plus is that I don't have to 'speak Alexa' anymore. I've been testing the voice assistant for about a week now, and it understands what I say, regardless of how I say it — there's no more need for precise phrasing to get Alexa to do what I want. This big shift underpins another headline feature of the revamped generative AI-powered assistant that I've been testing: agentic AI. But this one needs work. The idea is I can talk to Alexa Plus as I would to a real personal assistant and ask it to do tasks, such as reserving a restaurant for my friend's birthday, finding an electrician to fix my broken sprinkler pump, or booking tickets to a Chris Isaak concert. The assistant can then act as an 'AI agent' and navigate online services on my behalf to book everything for me. Combined with better calendar management and the ability to remember things you tell it, Alexa's agentic AI has the potential to make the assistant much more useful. Alexa's AI agent features are neither broad enough nor seamless enough to replace my real-life personal assistant: me At least in theory. In reality, it's too limited. Alexa Plus relies on partnerships with specific services; it can't just roam the web and do my bidding. As of now, that includes Ticketmaster, OpenTable, Uber, and Thumbtack. While impressively, Alexa did manage to complete several steps, overall, the AI agent's current features are neither broad enough nor seamless enough to replace my real-life personal assistant: me. Alexa Plus is still in an Early Access beta phase, and Amazon says more integrations are coming soon. These include ordering groceries by voice (via 'several grocery providers in the US'), delivery through Grubhub, and booking spa visits through Vagaro. These may be more useful to me, especially grocery ordering. I already use Alexa for my shopping list, but I then have to put everything into my Harris Teeter shopping app for pickup or delivery. If Alexa could take that list and add it to a service like Instacart, it would cut out a chunk of work for me. Of the three agentic experiences I tested, the best was booking a ticket to an event through Ticketmaster. After a dodgy start — when I asked about sports events and was told about a youth basketball training session — I tried again. 'What events are there in Charleston next month that you can buy me tickets for?' Alexa produced a list of about 10 local sports events and concerts on the Echo Show 15 I was using (Alexa Plus is much more useful on a screened device). It told me, 'You've got music shows like Blackberry Smoke and Mike Campbell on August 5th and Collective Soul on August 6th. There's also a Cure tribute band on August 2nd. Anything catch your interest?' I spotted a Chris Isaak concert in the list (I love a good Wicked Game) and told it to book me tickets. It found balcony seats for $98.15 each and asked how many I wanted, while also showing me more expensive options. I selected the cheap seats, and it walked me through each step as it added them to my cart, ending with a checkout button where my credit card details were pre-populated. (I'd linked my Ticketmaster account in the Alexa app when I first set up Alexa Plus.) I canceled before purchasing, because I don't love a Wicked Game $200 much, and Alexa confirmed that the tickets were released. However, alarmingly, later that day, a pop-up in the Alexa app told me that anyone with access to my Alexa devices can order tickets. Amazon: I'll take a PIN option here, please. Next, I asked Alexa to 'book a dinner for two in downtown Charleston for tomorrow night at 7PM.' It returned three options, which is just sad — Charleston has a hopping foodie scene. I picked a French spot I'd been to before and changed it up, asking Alexa to 'make it for two weeks on Friday.' Unfazed, Alexa understood, pivoted and confirmed availability for Friday, July 31st, at 7PM, then asked if I wanted to book. After I confirmed, it said it would also add the reservation to my linked Gmail calendar. Handy! Alexa had messed up the date Or so I thought. I then received a text message from OpenTable, confirming my reservation for Thursday, July 31st. Alexa had messed up the date. I told Alexa to switch the reservation to Friday, August 1st, and it did, also updating my calendar. While it eventually booked the table, Alexa took longer to do it and was less accurate than if I'd just opened the OpenTable app on my phone (or more realistically, the Resy app that most restaurants in Charleston use) and done it myself. Finally, I had Alexa tackle a chore I've been putting off for two years: finding an electrician. I've been meaning to get the circuit for my sprinkler pump fixed for ages. It's on the same one as my internet router, so when the pump kicks in, it trips the circuit — and down goes my Wi-Fi. The big difference is that I did all of this hands-free I told Alexa I needed an electrician to fix the sprinkler system, and asked if it could book one. It pulled a list of several 'highly rated electricians' in my area via Thumbtack, highlighting the top three. I picked one and asked it to schedule a visit for a week from now. Alexa asked several follow-up questions about my house and the specific issue — it felt a bit like filling out a webform with my voice. Alexa, then said it was working on sending the request through the Thumbtack website, and that I'd get updates soon. A few hours later, still no word from Alexa. But I received an email from Thumbtack (the first of many…) and a text message from the electrician asking me to call or text to schedule an appointment. Not exactly the seamless set-it-and-forget-it experience I'd hoped for. Still, the big difference is that I did all of this hands-free. I could be setting up dinner dates and finding electricians while cooking dinner or folding laundry. As a working mother of two, anything that helps with multitasking so I can complete my to-do list faster is welcome. But while the tech is impressive, the lack of depth and the failures I experienced in two out of my three tests mean I don't plan to rely on Alexa to do these tasks for me just yet. Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
The Verge
12-07-2025
- The Verge
24 hours with Alexa Plus: we cooked, we chatted, and it kinda lied to me
I've waited two years to try out the new Alexa, which was first announced way back in 2023, and this week I finally got access to Alexa Plus (not organically — I did have to pull a few strings). I've now spent 24 hours with Amazon's generative AI-powered voice assistant, and it's not just an improvement on the original; it's an entirely new assistant. Alexa Plus knows more, can do more, and is easier to interact with because it understands more. I can ramble, pause, sigh, cough, change my request mid-sentence, and it can adapt and respond appropriately. No more, 'Sorry, I'm not sure about that.' Miraculous. I'm impressed, but unsurprisingly, I found a few flaws. It's no secret that Amazon has been struggling to reinvent Alexa; reports of delays and setbacks have plagued the project since it was announced. Amazon's slow rollout of Alexa Plus is also a clue that confidence isn't sky-high. While the expansion has recently ramped up (Amazon told me it's now in 'many millions' of homes), the upgraded assistant is still in Early Access. It's a beta product, but that means it should get better. I'll publish an in-depth hands-on with Alexa Plus after spending a lot more time with it and testing the full list of new features it's been pushing at me since arriving in my home. But here's how I spent my first 24 hours with Alexa Plus along with my initial impressions of Alexa's metamorphosis. Alexa Plus landed on my Echo devices fairly late in the day, so, after going through some simple setup steps, my first experiment was having it help me cook dinner. I asked Alexa for a recipe for salmon tacos, told it I wanted the first one it suggested, and asked it to read me the steps. This is something I've done many times before, and while Alexa responded with more detailed suggestions and in a more conversational tone, it mostly felt like business as usual. But then, as it was reading me the steps, it displayed everything it was saying in a full-screen, chatbot-style interface on the Show 8 smart display, rather than just showing a static page of recipe steps and ingredients. It's a vast improvement over cooking with the old Alexa At first, not having the recipe visible confused me. I couldn't complete the steps as fast as Alexa was saying them. Then I realized that I didn't need to keep going back to the screen to scroll through the recipe as I'm used to doing. Instead, I could just ask Alexa to read out the info as I needed it. 'Which spices do I need for the seasoning?' I said, standing in front of the spice cupboard. 'How do I make the sauce?' I asked as I moved around the kitchen, getting the ingredients. Alexa replied with information pulled from the relevant sections. When I was putting the salmon in the air fryer, I asked, 'How long do I need to cook the salmon?' Alexa replied with the right time, and I said, 'Set a timer for that,' and it did. It's a vast improvement over cooking with the old Alexa, which can't respond on the fly like that. And which also loves to close the recipe on me in the middle of cooking, and then pretend it had never heard of that recipe when I ask it to show it again. But the new experience wasn't perfect. At one point, I asked how much sour cream I needed. 'I apologize, but the exact amount of sour cream for the white sauce isn't specific in the recipe details I have.' It was right there in the ingredients list. Then it told me that one cup would probably be fine, as if it was guessing, even though that's how much the recipe said. Alexa also lost the recipe once or twice when I hadn't interacted for a few minutes. A quick, 'Alexa, can you show me that salmon taco recipe?' usually brought it back successfully. But once it completely forgot what it was doing and tried to gaslight me by saying we hadn't had any conversations about salmon tacos today. I guess some things just don't change. The next morning, I walked into the kitchen and asked Alexa to make me a coffee. This normally triggers an Alexa Routine I created that turns on the Bosch coffee maker and starts making a coffee grande (Bosch lets you select specific coffee styles in its Alexa skill). This time, Alexa said, 'I'm sorry, I can't actually make coffee for you. Is there something else you'd like me to do instead?' This is where the friction between the old Alexa's command and control structure and the new, generative-AI Alexa's method of listening to what I say and 'deciding' what I want it to do became clear. Alexa couldn't parse that I wanted it to run a routine from my smart home rather than have it do something for me. Amazon isn't the only company struggling to merge its voice assistant's old functions with its new generative AI capabilities. This is a big part of why we've yet to see a smarter Siri in our HomePods or any major Gemini updates to Google Home beyond its own beta program. I rephrased, saying, 'Alexa, can you run my 'make me a coffee' routine?' It asked me which of my two coffee routines I wanted to run. I picked the one I wanted, and this time it ran. For my second cup, I tried a different tactic. Instead of using a routine, I just asked it to tap into the capabilities of the connected appliance: 'Alexa, can you ask my coffee machine to make me a coffee grande?' It worked. This last action is a big change and one that should make using smart home gadgets much easier. When the new Alexa was first announced, then-Alexa chief Dave Limp told me it would be capable of disambiguating controls for smart gadgets; know what they're capable of and use those tools when you ask for them without you having to do any setup. My first impressions here are promising, but I'll be doing a lot more testing. As I sat down with my coffee and granola, I put Alexa's new conversational skills to the test. I wanted to talk about the most important event in the world right now: Wimbledon. My family is bored to tears by tennis, and it was too early to ping my go-to tennis buddy, Verge features editor Kevin Nguyen. So, I asked Alexa to tell me how the tournament was going. After we talked back and forth about the championships, with Alexa giving me the lowdown on who was playing today, who were the favorites, as well as some interesting tidbits such as what would be historic about an Alcaraz win on Sunday, I asked for the score for the match that was currently taking place. Disappointingly, I didn't get the exact set / game breakdown, but it did accurately tell me that the first women's semi-final was tied at zero sets each. I then asked it to show me the match on YouTube TV, and it launched the app on the Echo Show 21 I was using (which has FireTV software built in). However, I had to tune in to ESPN on my own. Nicely done, Alexa. We have a family camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park planned for later this month, so while making lunch, I asked Alexa for some day trip ideas. After a bit of back and forth, I settled on Gatlinburg. It suggested Ripley's Aquarium, which I had not heard of, and will definitely check out, as well as the Dollywood theme park, which was already on our list. A voice in your home confidently telling you something that's not true hits a little harder than a chatbot lying to you in a text window I asked if there were any deals on Dollywood tickets, and Alexa excitedly told me about a great deal where I could get a two-day ticket for just $42 a day. I asked it to help me book those, and it showed me a link, along with some generic tips for buying tickets and how to check out. I pulled out my phone to open the chat — you can pick up any chat you start on an Echo device from the Alexa app, and soon on the web — and navigated to the Dollywood website. Once there, I learned that the pricing information Alexa had given me was wrong. I would be paying $122, not $84, for a two-day ticket. Bad Alexa. Chatbots giving incorrect information isn't anything new. And Amazon acknowledges that delivering accurate, real-time information is a 'known limitation' for Alexa Plus. But somehow, a voice in your home confidently telling you something that turns out not to be true, hits a little harder than a chatbot lying to you in a text window on your phone or computer, where you can quickly fact-check it with a Google search. That afternoon, I decided to try a feature I've been excited for: creating a smart home routine by voice. I've set up many, many, many routines in the Alexa app over the years, and it's a fiddly, time-consuming process that often goes wrong. Telling Alexa what I want and having it figure out the details definitely appeals. I started with something not too complicated. I told Alexa I wanted to dim the lights in the living room and kitchen to 60 percent, play relaxing music from the Echo Studio, and adjust the thermostat to 76 degrees. I said I wanted this to happen every night at 6PM, but I also wanted to trigger it with my voice at any time. After a couple of minutes of back and forth, we ended up with two routines: one that runs every night at 6 and one that I can execute with a voice command whenever I like. (Alexa Routines can only have one trigger each, hence the need for two routines.) Alexa then offered to test the routine, which worked, and it then ran as scheduled. Good Alexa. I'm mostly excited about this feature for my family, who rely on me to set things up for them. This should make it easier for them to bend our smart home to their will. After one day with Alexa, I'm impressed. Despite some slip-ups, it did make my life, which is very promising. While there are some rough edges to smooth out, several promised features are still MIA, and I've yet to put any of the flashier agentic abilities like booking a plumber, a restaurant, or an Uber — the changes I've seen so far are mostly good. The big shift for my household will be getting used to more personality in our AI However, I am super skeptical about how well it will interact with my smart home. Asking Alexa to run that coffee routine the next morning prompted the worrying response, 'I can't run Routines on demand.' Based on several Reddit threads, it seems some existing skills and APIs aren't jiving well with the new administration. A significant difference between a smart home voice assistant and a Chat-GPT-style chatbot is that the former can take actions in your home. This makes it potentially both more useful and more problematic. If ChatGPT hallucinates that the weather outside is frightful in a text box, it's not going to do much damage. You can see how an AI with control of my smart thermostat could cause problems if it gets hold of the wrong end of the weather stick. The biggest shift for my household with Alexa Plus will be getting used to more personality in our AI. My kids are 14 and 17. They've basically grown up with Alexa, and this new version is totally different. My 14-year-old daughter's first reaction to hearing it was shock. 'That's not nice!' she gasped. 'The way it talked back to you.' It wasn't that Alexa was rude; she was objecting to the extra personality it exhibited. She's firmly of the opinion that machines should not try to act like humans. I'm on the fence, but after spending some more time with Alexa Plus, I might be picking a side. We'll see. Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Is Helping To Reduce Prices, Says Jim Cramer
We recently published . Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer recently discussed. July has seen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) increase the frequency of its appearances on Cramer's morning show. Most of his discussions about the company have surrounded the firm's Alexa Plus service and its potential to allow Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America's leading AI companies. Cramer also believes that the firm is playing a key role in keeping prices low in the US. Here are his recent thoughts about Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN): 'Well look I think that, in my speech that I'm giving on Friday, I talk about the idea of, there's inflation brought on by tariffs and then there's deflation brought on by Andy Jassy. And we have to start recognizing these stupid things that we get, for the CPI, PPI. . .Do they really take into account Amazon Prime? I mean take a look at the things that are about to be on sale . . .but these are really anti-inflation. And it just should matter. And no president has ever, I tried to get the Biden people to say why don't you say something good about Costco, and they're like, what are you talking about, I mean well a 150 million people is a huge number of people that belong to don't you talk about Prime? None of the politicians want to touch anything good that we seem to do as business people.' Previously, Cramer discussed his interview with Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy: 'What I said to Jassy is when are we going to see the merger between Alexa Plus and robots. Because Alexa Plus is reasoning. And Alexa Plus can, you go back and forth with Alexa Plus. I've had my, you know I used to speak to regular Alexa and it was very one way. It was a really bad marriage. No I'm not kidding. A customer entering an internet retail store, illustrating the convenience of online shopping. 'I asked Andy Jassy by the way, whether, there was a Reuters story yesterday, that said his prices were, they did this analysis, and the prices are up already because of the tariff. Andy just point blank denied that. He said that this is not true. He did say that a lot of companies bought stuff forward. But he is not seeing any inflation from China yet. Now this is the crux of when will the Fed see it, when will we see it. We're not seeing it yet.' While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an extremely cheap AI stock that is also a major beneficiary of Trump tariffs and onshoring, see our free report on the . READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Techday NZ
11-07-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
The next frontier of AI product development: building systems that learn with your users
In 2025, Amazon rolled out an adaptive AI upgrade for Alexa (Alexa Plus) that instantly incorporated live user feedback to adjust tone, clarify responses, and even change recommended actions on the fly. Overnight, Alexa went from a passive voice assistant to an evolving partner that felt more human, one that adapts as you do. This isn't just an incremental improvement. It's a glimpse of what's next for AI systems across industries. The past decade has seen AI reshape everything from recommendation engines to customer service scripts. But most models we rely on today are static, trained once on historical data and then frozen in time. They might receive updates periodically, but they don't truly grow with us. That's where adaptive AI steps in: systems designed to learn continuously, in real time, directly from users. Why Adaptive AI is the Future Adaptive AI refers to systems that adjust behavior and outputs based on ongoing feedback, rather than waiting for scheduled retraining cycles. Instead of simply automating old patterns, adaptive AI systems co-create new solutions alongside their users. According to McKinsey, while 40% of organizations are experimenting with AI, very few are using it to empower human adaptability and creativity at scale. Most current use cases still focus on automating routine tasks rather than elevating human decision-making or improving responsiveness. As highlighted in Dataiku's 2025 GenAI Trends report, user-centric adaptive AI is becoming a strategic differentiator. Systems that adapt in real time don't just execute tasks; they learn preferences, anticipate needs, and build trust. The Power of Feedback Loops A key ingredient in adaptive AI is the feedback loop. Whether it's explicit (a thumbs-up or comment) or implicit (scrolling behavior, click hesitation), these signals help systems evolve to serve users better. Take Spotify as an example: every skip, replay, or playlist addition feeds its adaptive recommendation algorithms. The more you interact, the more it personalizes your experience, creating a sticky, almost addictive relationship with the product. Dataiku emphasizes that involving users in shaping AI outputs is essential for adoption and trust. Products that visibly improve in response to user behavior drive higher engagement and loyalty. This continuous loop – learn, adapt, improve – forms the core of adaptive AI. Challenges to Overcome While the promise is huge, adaptive AI presents real challenges. First and foremost: data privacy. Continuous learning requires ongoing data collection, and companies must be transparent and rigorous about how data is used. Compliance with global regulations like GDPR and forthcoming AI-specific frameworks isn't optional – it's foundational. Another critical challenge is stability. A system that overreacts to every micro feedback can create inconsistent or even chaotic user experiences. Striking a balance between adaptability and reliability is key. Design guardrails and thorough monitoring become crucial to avoid model drift or unexpected behaviors that erode trust. On the infrastructure side, adaptive AI demands real-time processing and ultra-low-latency architectures. Many legacy systems simply aren't built for this. Transitioning to adaptive AI often means rethinking entire data pipelines, backend architectures, and user interfaces, an investment not every organization is ready to make. Beyond Automation: AI as a Partner Perhaps the most exciting shift adaptive AI offers is transforming AI from a tool into a partner. Instead of simply automating tasks, adaptive AI augments human capabilities, helping teams make better decisions and solve problems creatively. McKinsey describes this evolution as the rise of "superagency", empowering employees to move from repetitive work to strategic and creative contributions, supported by adaptive AI systems. For example, customer service agents using AI that not only suggests responses but also learns and evolves with every interaction can focus more on empathy and complex problem-solving. Prediction: The Real Game-Changer While automation and personalization are valuable, predictive capabilities are where adaptive AI truly shines. Systems that can forecast churn, anticipate supply chain disruptions, or warn of potential payment failures enable businesses to act before issues escalate. But prediction without transparency can lead to blind trust or overreliance. As models grow more sophisticated, explaining decisions and keeping humans in the loop remain essential. Advice for Builders and Leaders For founders and tech leaders looking to tap into adaptive AI, my advice is simple: start small and iterate fast. Pilot feedback loops in non-critical parts of your product to understand user responses and system behavior. Invest early in ethical and compliance frameworks, these aren't afterthoughts but core to building long-term trust. Build cross-functional teams that include data scientists, product managers, UX researchers, and compliance experts. Finally, remember: the most successful AI products of the future won't just be fast or accurate. They'll feel like true partners – systems that evolve with your users, build loyalty, and create real business value over time.
