Amazon to Freshen Up Alexa with AI Features

Amazon plans to freshen up its Alexa service with conversational generative AI capabilities. The company may offer Alexa under two new tariffs with the top tier possibly costing up to $10 per month, which will be separate from its charge for Amazon Prime.

It would be the first major overhaul of the service since it was launched ten years ago during founder Jeff Bezos’ reign. The updated voice assistant may be dubbed Remarkable Alexa, according to Reuters, but the internal code name is “Banyan”. The tech company is targeting August for the launch of Remarkable Alexa. Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy is taking a personal interest in the project, the news site noted.

Despite having an early mover advantage, Alexa has never generated a profit and has been eclipsed by new AI-powered chatbots. The company is also looking once again at developing additional Alexa-enabled devices to broaden the reach of Alexa into additional rooms, or for use cases such as tracking home energy consumption.