Say Hello to Alexa+, the next generation of virtual assistant by Amazon, now powered by Generative AI. This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a whole new vibe! It took them more than a year to upgrade Alexa, to make it understand our “natural” language and talk back to us. So, Alexa can now have conversations in a humanlike manner.
Amazon unveiled the new Alexa+ at their presentation in New York. For Amazon Prime members, it is free. So, this is a good time to test these new AI features for yourself.
8 New AI Features of Alexa
Here are the latest AI-enhanced features from Alexa+ that will make your life easier and more organized.
1) Discuss Anything when you are bored
Now that Alexa can understand anything you say, unlimited possibilities have unlocked. You can just say “Alexa” and discuss anything with it. You can talk about your studies, movies, sports, and any hobby you like.
Don’t know what to talk about, then there is Alexa+ Daily Briefing for you. It will provide you with the latest news based on your interests. Amazon has partnered with 200 news outlets including Associated Press, The Washington Post, Forbes, USA Today, Reuters, etc.
2) Get Entertainment Recommendations
Amazon has Music, E-Books, Streaming, and TV services as well. So now that it can learn more about you, it can give better recommendations on what you need to watch next. Get ideas for a new movie you can watch, songs you can hear, podcasts you can listen to, books you can read.
A cool feature is that if you want to find out a specific thing in a movie based on a quote or character’s name, just ask Alexa+ to find it. It will then find the movie (if it’s available on Amazon Prime Video), jump forward to the specific scene and play it on Fire TV. This applies to any song you listened to in a movie and Alexa will track it down.
3) Remember Important Stuff
You can tell Alexa about the things you like or your habits, and it will remember everything. This can be details about your favorite restaurant, a family recipe, or your dietary requirements. You can even take photos and documents with it to recall details from them when you want.
But the most interesting ability is that it can manage your schedule if you connect your Calendar or Email app with it. So, now you can’t miss your important meetings for your wife’s birthday.
4) Create Complex Routines
Alexa already had personalized automation called Routines features, but now they are AI-powered also. You can set up your routines with a simple voice prompt like you are talking to your assistant. For example, just say “every morning at 7 am, turn on the coffee pot, slowly turn my bedroom lights on, and play some peaceful music.”
There is also the ability to set reminders for your family tool. If Alexa recognizes that your wife or kids have come home, it can pass your message to them.
5) Create Songs and Images
There are many AI image and music generators, but most of them are paid. Now, with your single Prime subscription, you can create these things too. Alexa has partnered with Suno to turn your music ideas into complete songs. There is also the ability to generate AI images by prompting it with your imagination.
6) Find out What Happened in your Home
You can give Alexa access to your home cameras (Ring) and it can provide you with a summary of all the activities around your house when you reach home. This can be a packaged delivery or someone stopped by to meet you.
7) Order Online with Voice
Create shopping lists via voice and then get your groceries delivered from Amazon Fresh.
Want to eat something from outside? You can order food from Grubhub. Alexa can also assist you by giving suggestions on what you might like to eat today based on your preferences. This applies when you are ordering food or even cooking at home.
You can ask Alexa what you can do with your leftovers to find some new “inspirational” meal.
Don’t want to eat at home? Let Alexa make dinner reservations. Just tell it the time and place to book a spot in your favorite restaurant through OpenTable.
There is an integration with Uber to book rides without even clicking a button. Just ask it when you want to go, and it will show you different options on your screen.
They also partnered with Ticketmaster, so that you can book tickets for your favorite concert anytime by talking with your Alexa device.
8) Find New Deals
Since you must have been shopping a lot from Amazon, now it can help you find discounts. You can ask Alexa to keep an eye on your wish list and tell you if there is a better deal via a notification.
And just like deals on Amazon, you can ask it to monitor ticket availability and prices on Ticketmaster for the next concert you want to enjoy.
Takeaways
If you are not a prime member, you have to pay $19 per month to access the new enhancements. You can access Alexa+ through your Echo, smartphone app, as well as with a new website. With this new update, Amazon is joining the AI race. They have added new AI features to their sellers as well, but now the new features are more from the general public.
While these features are available in ChatGPT as well, Amazon wants to give you a complete ecosystem under their single Prime membership.
