Amazon CEO Announces 100,000 Users Now Subscribed to Alexa+

Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, shared some exciting news on the company's earnings call on Thursday: Alexa+, the upgraded digital assistant powered by generative AI, has now reached over 100,000 users. That's a significant milestone, even if it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the 600 million Alexa devices out there. Back in February, when Alexa+ was first unveiled, Amazon promised a gradual rollout over the coming months, and it looks like they're sticking to that plan.

The new and improved Alexa+ is all about making conversations feel more natural. Eventually, it's supposed to have agentic abilities, allowing it to use third-party apps on your behalf. Think of it like having a personal assistant who can order your favorite takeout or find the perfect birthday gift without you lifting a finger. Plus, Alexa+ can generate original responses on the fly, much like the voice modes in OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. It's a far cry from the old Alexa and Siri, which relied on predetermined responses.

However, as The Washington Post pointed out at the launch, the current version of Alexa+ is missing some of the cool features Amazon demoed back in February. Right now, it can't use third-party apps like GrubHub, create bedtime stories for kids, or brainstorm gift ideas. Jassy mentioned on the call that they have a lot more functionality planned for the coming months, so we'll have to wait and see when these features make their way into Alexa+.

During his opening remarks, Jassy called Alexa+ one of the first action-oriented AI agents for consumers. But he also admitted that the technology is still pretty "primitive" and "inaccurate." He revealed that most multi-step AI agents have accuracy rates between 30% and 60%. Jassy set a ambitious goal for Amazon's web-browsing agent, Nova Act, which powers Alexa+, aiming for a 90% accuracy rate in this area.

It seems like Amazon is moving a bit faster than Apple when it comes to rolling out their new, LLM-powered digital assistants. During Apple's earnings call on Thursday, which happened at the same time as Amazon's, CEO Tim Cook admitted that they needed "more time to complete the work" on the new Siri.

Both Apple and Amazon have apparently hit some roadblocks in their efforts to supercharge their legacy digital assistants with generative AI. The biggest challenge seems to be getting large language models (LLMs) to use tools and integrate with other systems. This is crucial for allowing Alexa and Siri to perform practical tasks like setting timers and reading texts. But as it turns out, putting this into action is harder than anyone expected.

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