Alexa+, Amazon’s revamped version of Alexa was unveiled Wednesday, bringing the popular voice assistant into the artificial intelligence era.

Though Amazon now has its Rufus AI chatbot to help explain products and find deals, I don't think it's worth using—and I'm not waiting around for it to improve. Instead, I use Perplexity to find deals and products I want on Amazon with minimal hassle.

The only surprise in Amazon’s reveal of Alexa+ this week was the price. With inflation rampant and many more impactful subscription services to choose from, $20 per month is an absolutely bonkers price for an as-yet unproven AI chatbot.

After a lengthy delay, Amazon has finally jumped on the same AI chatbot bandwagon as everyone else. At an event in New York on Wednesday, Amazon lifted the veil off of the new AI-enhanced version of its Alexa voice assistant, called Alexa+.

Amazon has sold hundreds of millions of Alexa-enabled devices but has lagged behind in upgrading the platform, until now.

Amazon says Alexa+ is able to have conversations with a more natural, humanlike flow and can learn more about a user—such as dietary preferences or allergies—the more it’s used.

Amazon is aiming to catch up in generative artificial intelligence and to reboot its virtual assistant, which has been leapfrogged by powerful chatbots.

Amazon focused heavily on agentic AI features for Alexa+, including the ability to draft and send text messages and emails to contacts. This is not especially new or revolutionary given the recent agentic AI explosion in the tech world, but it's still worth talking about.

At an event in New York on Wednesday, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experience — Alexa+ — powered by generative AI technologies. Onstage, Amazon’s devices and services chief Panos Panay called it a “complete re-architecture” of the AI assistant.

Alexa+ is a big part of Amazon’s attempt to do just that – in addition to upgrading Alexa for the current chatbot era. Amazon is touting Alexa’s new ability to incorporate a user’s ...