{"id":448926,"date":"2026-02-04T18:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448926\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:05:08","slug":"alexa-amazons-ai-assistant-is-now-available-to-everyone-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448926\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexa+, Amazon’s AI assistant, is now available to everyone in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexa+, Amazon\u2019s upgraded, generative AI-powered version of its Alexa assistant, is available to all U.S. customers as of Wednesday. The company said that the AI feature will be free to Prime members across devices. Meanwhile, anyone can use Alexa+ for free via the Alexa website<\/a> or mobile app, with some limitations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have tens of millions of customers using Alexa+ now, and now we\u2019re going to make it available to all Prime members\u2026Prime members enjoy unlimited access \u2014 it\u2019s basically a paid-tier level of access that we\u2019re including in Prime now,\u201d notes Daniel Rausch, VP of Alexa and Echo at Amazon, in an interview with TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

Announced last year<\/a>, Alexa+ is model agnostic \u2014 meaning it runs on a combination of Amazon\u2019s own foundation models and those from other companies, allowing the assistant to do more than the basic tasks of its predecessor using whatever AI technology is best for the job. <\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits:Amazon<\/p>\n

As an AI assistant, Alexa+ can carry on natural language conversations that include follow-up questions and back-and-forth chat.<\/p>\n

In addition to performing smart home tasks, scheduling timers, or offering news and weather, as before, the new assistant can do most things that other AI chatbots can do \u2014 like planning an itinerary for a trip, updating a shared calendar, finding and saving recipes to a library, making movie recommendations, helping with homework, exploring a topic, and more. <\/p>\n

Plus, integrations<\/a> with services like Ticketmaster, Thumbtack, Uber, Angi,\u00a0Expedia,\u00a0Square,\u00a0Yelp, Fodor\u2019s, OpenTable, and Suno will allow Alexa to perform more complex tasks, like scheduling a dinner reservation or requesting an Uber ride. Amazon has not yet shared user adoption numbers on this more \u201cagentic\u201d use case (where the AI acts autonomously to complete tasks) for the AI helper.<\/p>\n

During its year-long beta testing period, Alexa customers had the option to try the AI feature or roll back to the prior version. The company tells TechCrunch the option to revert to the old Alexa will continue to be available, but couldn\u2019t say for how long. Likely, Amazon wants a bit more time to improve the AI experience before making it a requirement for users. The percentage of those opting out is also a key metric to track, but Rausch notes that the figure is in the low single digits, suggesting that most customers are not so unhappy with Alexa+ that they\u2019re giving up. <\/p>\n

\"Alexa.com\"Image Credits:Amazon<\/p>\n

Still, Amazon has had to work to resolve bugs and address user feedback ahead of this launch. Some beta testers complained that Alexa+ was too chatty, or interrupted at the wrong times, for instance. Others complained about Alexa\u2019s new voice.<\/p>\n

Amazon has taken in this feedback and made changes over time. For instance, the company revised the onboarding experience to have Alexa explain how to change her voice, as some preferred Alexa\u2019s \u201cOG\u201d voice. (That voice is still available as Alexa+ voice No. 2, but it now uses AI to add more inflection.)<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually, we had her use her new version of her old voice, and then switch back again, just to show customers,\u201d says Rausch, describing the changes the team made to onboarding. <\/p>\n

In another example, Amazon tried to make Alexa less prone to unwanted interruptions. Now, Alexa will ask, \u201cIs that for me?\u201d when the AI is unsure who is being addressed. <\/p>\n

\"AlexaImage Credits:Screenshot of the new Alexa app<\/p>\n

Rausch points out that the overall experience is configurable, too. If customers don\u2019t want the follow-on mode, for instance \u2014 which allows Alexa to continue listening after responding \u2014 they can turn it off.<\/p>\n

Asked if users will be able to change the AI assistant\u2019s personality, as in other AI chatbots, where the AI can be set to be personal, professional, quirky, nerdy, and more, Rausch says simply, \u201cStay tuned.\u201d <\/p>\n

During the beta, Amazon reported positive adoption trends in terms of both usage and engagement, with few customers opting for rollbacks. Music streams increased by 25% after customers upgraded to Alexa+, and more customers are engaging deeply with recipes, a feature that has seen 5x growth.<\/p>\n

Overall, customers are having two to three times more conversations with Alexa+, compared with the original Alexa.<\/p>\n

While Alexa+ will be free to U.S. Prime members, non-Prime customers could opt to pay $19.99\/month for standalone access \u2014 a price that\u2019s comparable to something like ChatGPT Plus. <\/p>\n

Amazon notes the free experience on web and mobile will have some limits, but these are mainly in place to protect against abuse. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got some great, generous limits. We\u2019re not talking about exactly what they are today, but\u2026there are some [limits],\u201d Rausch says. <\/p>\n

The Alexa+ experience in the U.S. will be available across Alexa devices, including Echo products, Fire TV, Alexa.com, the Alexa mobile app, and Alexa-enabled devices from partners including Samsung, Bose, and others, with more to come. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexa+, Amazon\u2019s upgraded, generative AI-powered version of its Alexa assistant, is available to all U.S. customers as of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[115621,960,103845,74],"class_list":["post-448926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-alexa","tag-amazon","tag-echo","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}