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Amazon\u2019s upgraded digital assistant powered by generative AI, Alexa+, has rolled out to over 100,000 users, CEO Andy Jassy said on the company\u2019s earnings call Thursday.<\/p>\n
While that\u2019s a far cry from the 600 million Alexa devices out there, the company is making some progress on the rollout of Alexa+, which was first unveiled in February<\/a>. At the time, Amazon said that Alexa+ would roll out in waves over the coming months.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s new digital assistant aims to let users talk with it in a more natural style, and eventually have agentic abilities that allow it to use third-party apps on a user\u2019s behalf. Alexa+ should be able to generate original responses on the fly, much like the voice modes in OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT and Google\u2019s Gemini, rather than the predetermined responses of the old Alexa and Siri systems.<\/p>\n However, as The Washington Post reported at launch, the Alexa+ that\u2019s rolling out today lacks some of the key features the company demoed in February<\/a>. The report notes that, at launch, Alexa+ did not have the ability to use third party apps like GrubHub, generate a bedtime story for children, or brainstorm a gift idea. It\u2019s unclear when those features will make it into Alexa+.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot more functionality that we plan to add in coming months,\u201d Jassy said on the call.<\/p>\n During his opening comments, Jassy claimed that Alexa+ is one of the first action-oriented AI agents for consumers. But he noted that this technology is still rather \u201cprimitive\u201d and \u201cinaccurate.\u201d Currently, most multi-step AI agents have a low accuracy rate, between 30% and 60%, the Amazon CEO said. Jassy set a goal for the company\u2019s web-browsing agent that powers Alexa+, Nova Act<\/a>, to achieve 90% accuracy in this domain.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s rollout of Alexa+ seems to be progressing faster than Apple\u2019s rollout of its new, LLM-powered Siri. When asked about the new Siri delays on Apple\u2019s Thursday earnings call, which occurred simultaneously wiith Amazon\u2019s, CEO Tim Cook said the company needed \u201cmore time to complete the work<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBerkeley, CA<\/span> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t Along the road to supercharge legacy digital assistants with generative AI, both Apple and Amazon have reportedly run into snags and delays<\/a>. Some of the biggest hiccups are around getting LLMs to use tools and integrate with other systems. Doing so allows Alexa and Siri to complete practical tasks such as setting timers and reading texts, but implementing it has proven harder than expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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