Latest news with #DanielRausch
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
I Went To The Amazon Prime Analyst Day. Here's What I Learned.
Last week, I attended Amazon's first-ever Prime Analyst Day in Seattle. It was a valuable opportunity to hear firsthand from senior executives who updated us on Amazon's latest innovations and strategic direction. Here are five key takeaways. Daniel Rausch, Vice President, Alexa and Echo, gave us a demo of the new generative AI-enabled Alexa. It's smarter, more intuitive and more personalized. 'Amazon's strategy is to help shoppers get things done,' Rausch told us. While the old Alexa was mainly about replenishment tasks, Alexa+ can help shoppers explore more – increasingly important for a marketplace selling millions of products. The first-ever Amazon Prime Analyst Day took place in Seattle in June 2025. Using the larger Echo Show displays, Rausch asked Alexa to help him find a cowboy hat for a Beyoncé concert. He then built a grocery list by asking for specific products as well as ingredients for a recipe. The fluidity of the conversation, the speed of the results, ease of modifications, and the visual cues made for an impressive experience. I've never been overly optimistic about voice commerce, but I think this could be a gamechanger. I asked whether Amazon felt their grocery offering was differentiated enough, especially given that competitors have raised their game in recent years. Do shoppers really understand the Amazon value proposition? The answer: price, selection, and convenience is Amazon's USP. I'd argue that in grocery it's difficult to achieve all three, but Amazon believes that it's well positioned to deliver on this. 'Over the past 20 years, grocery shopping has actually gotten more complicated,' said Meredith Bunche, Director, Amazon Grocery. 'Grocers offer so much choice today, and that has created a larger mental load for people who just want to get their groceries.' In fact, throughout the day, there was a strong emphasis on Amazon's ability to reduce the cognitive load for shoppers, busy families in particular. That's certainly a sweet spot for Amazon and perhaps one of the incentives to start consolidating grocery and non-food orders in same-day fulfilment centres. 'Customers may not realize they can buy a tomato on Amazon for same-day delivery,' said Sarah Mathew, Vice President, Global Delivery Experience. Perishables is an important category as it drives repeat purchasing, but Amazon's real strength is in everyday essentials. Think diapers, potato chips, pet food, toothpaste. This category grew twice as fast of the rest of the business in Q1, now representing 1 in 3 units sold in the US. Even though Prime isn't just about delivery perks these days, it's important that Amazon continues to improve on speed. Out of the 26 countries where Prime is available today, Jamil Ghani, Worldwide Vice President of Amazon Prime, mentioned Japan as an example of a fast delivery market, where most of Amazon's selection is available for one-day or same-day delivery, with everyday essentials among the most speed sensitive. Jamil Ghani, Worldwide Vice President of Amazon Prime Sarah Mathew noted how, contrary to popular belief, same-day delivery can be incredibly cost-effective. And it certainly powers that flywheel. 'Every time we get faster, we see customers come back more often,' she said. As with any subscription, retention is critical for Amazon Prime. Ghani noted how over 70,000 members have been with Prime since its initial launch in 2005. That is phenomenal loyalty and reminds me of a quote from Jeff Bezos: 'Our goal with Amazon Prime, make no mistake, is to make sure that if you are not a Prime member, you are being irresponsible.' This is why Amazon continues to invest in new benefits, particularly those with frequent usage like food delivery apps Grubhub in the US and Deliveroo in the UK. Ghani noted that there is a 'huge increase' in retention for those members who use a second Prime benefit. It's also why they've raised the annual fee just three times over the past two decades. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, the fee has only increased marginally ($131 versus the actual $139). Ghani doesn't like to call Prime a loyalty programme, as he told me on my Retail Disrupted podcast. He believes Amazon aspires for much more than a transactional relationship; in fact, Prime has become a utility for many households. 'You pay a little more to get a whole lot more,' Ghani said. One of things he is most excited about is live sports. 'It punches above its weight in terms of differentiation and longevity. Those members are shopping, not just coming to watch the game and moving on.' Ghani also noted how Prime is not a breakage model. 'The more a member uses Prime, the happier we are. We don't want to be a gym where we sign people up in January and everyone stops going in February.' And, finally, he confirmed that Prime is not a loss leader. High velocity events like Prime Day drive customer acquisition. Yes, there is churn but even those customers – the ones who trial Prime but don't go on to become members - are valuable. They are much more likely to continue shopping with Amazon, having had that experience. Amazon may not be invincible, but it certainly remains one of the most innovative, customer-centric businesses in the world. As Daniel Rausch put it, 'We know how to disrupt ourselves before someone else can.'
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon's generative AI vision for Alexa is appealing, but unproven
Amazon's long-awaited update to its assistant is almost here. About 18 months after the company first previewed the 'next-gen Alexa' built with generative AI, it unveiled Alexa+, and early access will be available starting in March. Alexa+ will exist alongside the older Alexa and will cost $20 a month, unless you have a Prime membership, which will make it free to use. The new assistant will come with all the modern upgrades that its contemporaries like the redesigned Siri or Gemini offer, like more conversational interaction, better contextual understanding and the ability to 'summarize complex topics' and 'make suggestions based on your interests.' But it does one thing differently, and it's the way Amazon purports to integrate with third-party apps and the rest of the internet that could set it apart. At the presentation, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV Daniel Rausch outlined three ways the new assistant can integrate with other services you use. Firstly, it already works with 'tens of thousands' of integrations already available, with Uber, Sonos, Samsung and Xbox being a few of the many logos that were displayed when Rausch said this. Presumably, that means Amazon worked with these partners to get their apps to play nicely with Alexa+ through their APIs. Secondly, for the large swath of the online world that doesn't have apps or the resources to code an API just for Alexa+, the assistant should be able to scour the internet for their website and navigate it on your behalf. During the presentation, Rausch demonstrated how Alexa+ was able to go to the Thumbtack website to hire a professional to fix his oven. Instead of having to whip out a phone or laptop to click through menus himself, Rausch could just verbally tell Alexa+ what he needed and what times he was available, and the AI did the rest. This example in particular struck me as very similar to Google's restaurant-reservation system Duplex, which, since way back in 2018, could call businesses on your behalf to book a table. All you had to do was tell Google what date and times you were considering, how many people were in your party and it would make the call for you, even speaking in a human-sounding voice to the restaurant. The way Alexa+ would click around websites on your behalf seems like Duplex on steroids. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Finally, Alexa+ can work with the 'AI agents' on other sites, so you can talk to just one assistant instead of dozens of chatbots. In the presentation, Rausch got Alexa+ to work with the AI music generator Suno to come up with a country-style song about bodega cats. After the company's presentation, I spoke with Rausch to get more clarity on how Alexa+ will work with the rest of the online world. For one, I wanted to know for sure if that third method would work with customer service chatbots from companies like Capital One, United Airlines and more. While Rausch said that he had no details to share on specific names or services, he did confirm that 'the SDK is all about integrations like that,' saying it's for people to use Alexa to connect with agents on their behalf to complete tasks. Rausch is aware that any friction at all in the adoption and setup process can turn people away. To that end, upgrading to Alexa+ should not require any additional sign-ins or authentication. You should be able to have all your connected appliances, security cameras and home routines carry over without any effort. 'The reason that customers love Alexa is it takes away all the complexity,' Rausch said. People don't need to remember the brand of the WeMo plug they bought, for example, to be able to tell Alexa to turn off a lamp. 'We would never take that away,' he said. When you're adding new services after upgrading to Alexa+, Rausch said you'll either do so 'in the ways that you do it today' or that it'll get even easier, since 'Alexa can walk you through those setups in many more cases.' According to Rausch, instead of having to 'dig around in the Alexa app, you just say 'Alexa, I want to set up a streaming account with Hulu' or something.' You'll be presented with a QR code on an Echo device with a screen to facilitate that, and the assistant should guide users along the way. 'We like to say Alexa is an expert, and now an expert on herself.' Amazon isn't the only company that has made its assistant perform tech support for users. This approach is very similar to how Siri can teach you how to, say, shoot a video in Cinematic mode or create a Genmoji. Where better to get help about a product you're using than the product itself? Why make me go to a different place for information? 'From a customer experience perspective, customers just want the thing done,' Rausch said. 'They don't have to be responsible or care about any of these things, right?' He believes people just want the plumber or a reservation booked, and don't want to fuss around with websites and phone calls. People do want their digital assistant to be helpful and easy to use, but isn't it equally important that these AI services are accurate and reliable? When I asked Rausch how Amazon worked around the tendency of generative AI to hallucinate and sometimes spread misinformation, he said 'I actually think in the industry, there's been a mistake of thinking a model is a product.' He also said 'LLMs are at the foundation of the architecture, but they're not the only thing answering the question.' In other words, Alexa+ is using a combination of Amazon's knowledge graphs, reliable sources on the internet and partnerships with authoritative outlets. 'Other products will simply give you an answer out of the LLM. If you're asking for an authoritative answer, that's not actually sometimes the way to get one. and I think that's what you're highlighting,' he said. Rausch added that Amazon has 'taken great care' with Alexa. 'Will it make mistakes? Every piece of software makes mistakes,' he said. 'But we're working hard to ground it in knowledge.' I've yet to try out Alexa+ for myself, and everything we've seen so far has been in highly controlled demos, so it's hard to tell what real world performance will be like. But if the new Alexa is truly able to work with third-party services in a way that's seamless and effective, it would not only bring Amazon back into the consumer AI race, but could possibly give it an advantage over the likes of Google, Apple and OpenAI. Considering Amazon really brought the idea of a virtual assistant into homes around the world, this could also have an impact that goes beyond the tech-savvy users of today's AI services. Amazon has unveiled Alexa+. Follow the Alexa+ launch event liveblog for real-time analysis and commentary.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With Alexa+, Amazon makes an intriguing play in the consumer agent space
Amazon shared an impressive vision of an "agentic" future on Wednesday — one in which the company's improved Alexa, Alexa+, handles countless mundane tasks, from booking restaurants to finding appliance repairmen. If Amazon can deliver, it could be the first out to the gate with a comprehensive, consumer-focused agent tool. The company hopes to marry a more natural, expressive Alexa — one powered by generative AI models — with the ability to tap into first- and third-party apps, services, and platforms in a fully autonomous, intelligent way. "We believe that the future is full of agents — we have believed this for some time," Amazon Alexa and Echo VP Daniel Rausch said in a keynote Wednesday. "There will be many AI agents out there doing things for customers, many of them will have specialized skills ... And we've also always believed that in a world full of AI, these agents should interact with each other. They should interoperate seamlessly for customers." That'd be a big win for a tech giant struggling to make its long-in-the-tooth assistant relevant again. Amazon has invested for years in Alexa without significant revenue to show for it; the company's hardware division has reportedly burned through billions of dollars. Agents, a nebulous and increasingly diluted term referring to AI models that can take actions on a user's behalf, are the next big thing in AI. The tech industry sees agents as the key to extracting value from increasingly sophisticated models. Agents promise to knock out low-hanging chores and agenda items, boosting people's — and businesses' — overall productivity. That's the idea, at least. So far, agents have largely underwhelmed. Major AI labs, including Anthropic and OpenAI, have launched agents that can take control of a browser to perform actions. But they often make mistakes, and require a fair degree of intervention to accomplish more involved tasks. Other ambitious attempts at agents, like Google's Project Mariner, remain in the prototype stage, without committed release windows. Amazon's demos of Alexa+, which is scheduled to launch in preview starting next month, depicted a more polished agentic experience — one with few technical hurdles. The company showed the assistant extracting information from a range of sources, including emails, calendars, and stored preferences, to help with daily errands. In one preview during a presser in New York on Wednesday morning, Amazon showed Alexa+ building a grocery shopping list, then ordering items via integrations with Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, and other local chains. In a separate demo, the company highlighted how Alexa+ can automatically purchase products on Amazon when they go on sale, and reserve spa and fitness appointments through wellness app Vagaro. The agentic capabilities don't stop there, according to Amazon. Alexa+ can place food delivery orders through Grubhub, hail an Uber, find tickets to upcoming concerts on Ticketmaster, put together a travel itinerary drawing on sources like Tripadvisor, and even extract key dates and times from an event flyer to set a reminder. It all sounds very exciting — and ambitious. And Amazon is arguably well-positioned to succeed, given the retailer's years of data on shopper habits and partnerships with major tech ecosystems and services. Alexa+ users willing to fork over their data stand to benefit from a more personalized, tailored agent experience. It's no accident that Alexa+ — normally priced at $19.99 a month — will be free for Prime subscribers, Amazon's most dedicated user cohort. Amazon is also counting on its enormous Alexa installed base — over 600 million devices — to jumpstart Alexa+'s adoption. With an Alexa-compatible speaker already in many homes, the company's wagering that Alexa+ will be a no-brainer for many users. Perhaps Amazon's biggest challenge will be overcoming the technical limitations of today's AI tech. Alexa+ has reportedly been delayed repeatedly due to misbehaving models; earlier versions of the experience couldn't answer questions correctly and struggled to turn smart lights off and on. Not for nothing, rivals' baby steps in the direction of agentic tools have suffered their own setbacks. ChatGPT deep research, OpenAI's agentic model for compiling research reports, sometimes hallucinates. Google's Gemini chatbot, meanwhile, spits out factually wrong summaries of emails. It was tough to get a sense of how Alexa+ performed at Wednesday's press event. Many of the demos were highly choreographed, and Amazon didn't allow attendees to use the new assistant at length. We'll have to wait to put Alexa+ through its paces to know if it comes close to fulfilling Amazon's agentic sales pitch. If it does, that'd be a very impressive feat indeed — and might just give Amazon the lead in the consumer agent race. Sign in to access your portfolio
