Amazon says that the new and improved Alexa unveiled on Wednesday, Alexa+, is powered by a “model agnostic” system that’s always using the “best” AI model for any given task.
Onstage at a press event in NYC, Amazon VP Daniel Rausch said that Alexa+ draws on Bedrock, Amazon’s cloud platform designed to let organizations experiment with generative AI models, to power its various capabilities.
Among the models Alexa+ is using are Amazon Nova, Amazon’s family of in-house generative AI models, as well as models from Amazon’s close partner and collaborator Anthropic.
This “model agnostic” approach enables what might be considered “agentic” capabilities. Alexa+ leverages a new system called “experts” for particular tasks, Amazon says. Experts orchestrate and execute first-party Amazon services as well as services from third parties.
Rausch said on day one, Alexa+ will work with “tens of thousands” of devices and services.
Some of these services include news services. Amazon says that it’s partnered with publications including Time, Reuters, and the Associated Press to supply info for answers related to news, financial markets, and more.
That only scratches the surface of what Alexa+ can do. According to Rausch, Alexa+ can navigate websites to complete tasks on a user’s behalf. For example, it can find a professional to repair a broken oven by searching the web, and even contact the repair shop autonomously.
“Alexa takes a couple minutes to navigate a website [and it] comes back and tells me it’s done,” Rausch said. “I’m going to get a notification on my phone that lets me know [when Alexa is finished.]”
