More invites to Amazon’s upgraded digital assistant, Alexa+, powered by generative AI, have been steadily rolling out. The service, first announced in February, now reaches over a million users, Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. However, Alexa+ is not yet publicly available.
Instead, Amazon has been working through its waitlist, sending out invites to those customers who originally signed up to test the service when it became available. Over the past several weeks, many people have shared on social media that they’ve received an invite to try Alexa+, whose service offers more natural and personalized interactions, smart home integration, and expanded capabilities thanks to AI.
Alexa+ is available for free during Early Access and will later be free for Prime customers. Non-Prime users will be able to use the service for $19.99 per month after it publicly launches.
Amazon earlier this year noted that invites to try out the new system would roll out in waves in the months ahead. As of May 2025, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that Alexa+ had so far reached over 100,000 users, representing only a tiny fraction of the 600 million Alexa devices that had been sold. That number has grown significantly in the weeks since.
Alexa+ represents a serious attempt by Amazon to create a generative AI experience for consumers that it can eventually monetize.
Though Amazon created a market for smart home-connected, voice-based assistants through its Alexa-powered Echo devices, it wasn’t able to turn that traction into a revenue-generating business. Meanwhile, Alexa lost its shine in more recent years as generative AI services, like ChatGPT, took off. Compared with modern-day AI, Alexa began to feel clunky, constrained, and underpowered.
Alexa+ aims to bring the digital assistant new capabilities. The service allows users to chat with the digital assistant using more natural language, where you can phrase requests your own way. For instance, you could tell Alexa, “It’s too cold in here,” to have Alexa adjust your smart thermostat. You’ll also more easily be able to create routines, search across your Ring camera footage, interrupt or pivot the conversation with the assistant, and more.
The experience is more personalized, too, as it saves your preferences and remembers what you like, from favorite songs to recipes and beyond.
With its generative AI component, Alexa can do things like summarize long emails you share with the service, create unique bedtime stories, generate quizzes from study guides, make travel itineraries, provide summaries of your smart home activity, and answer other questions, similar to how an AI chatbot might respond.
Plus, the assistant will be able to help you take certain actions — like buying concert tickets, booking a dinner reservation, and notifying you when something you’ve been watching goes on sale, among other things. Initial partners on this feature include OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Uber Eats, Tripadvisor, Grubhub, Yelp, Priceline, Viator, Thumbtack, Atom, Fodor’s, and others.
While in early access, Alexa+ will initially be available on Echo Show 8, 10, 15, or 21 devices in the U.S. Over time, it will expand to more Echo customers, Fire TV users, and Fire tablet users.
Customers who have been invited to try the product are reporting mixed results, with some praising the service, noting it’s more advanced than Siri, while others said it’s still rough around the edges. (Some early reviews agree with the latter.)
It’s worth pointing out that Alexa+ is not currently fully launched, but it’s getting close. Amazon says nearly 90% of the features it previously announced have since shipped.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/
