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Alexa has been one of the most accessible voice assistants since its 2014 launch by Amazon, but it has been lagging behind the rise of generative AI solutions such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
The largest update to Alexa since its debut will be the transformation into a generative AI service. Alexa will be able to manage requests with multiple facets and have sophisticated, context-aware discussions with people.
Because early iterations of Amazon AI struggled to respond quickly, the company is now leveraging AI models from Anthropic's Claude instead of depending entirely on its own AI technology. Last year, Amazon had originally intended to release the new Alexa, but ultimately postponed the launch.
With over 500 million Alexa-enabled devices sold and over 100 million active Alexa users, it is critical that Amazon makes the proper changes to Alexa. With plans to someday charge a monthly fee for the new Alexa, Amazon hopes to turn some of those Alexa users into paying customers. Amazon won't charge for the new Alexa during its initial testing phase, which will involve a limited number of people.
The new Amazon Alexa version will launch shortly before Apple is anticipated to start testing a new Siri version with additional Apple Intelligence features. According to Apple, Siri will be enhanced with on-screen awareness, personal context, and greater functionality in and with apps. These features should enable Siri to do more for users of iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
In order to better compete with ChatGPT and chatbots, it is rumoured that Apple may release an improved version of Siri next year that has been trained using big language models.
