Amazon is planning to launch a paid model of its Alexa smart AI voice assistant service, The Wall Street Journal reported. While the specifics are yet to be revealed, there already are reports of Amazon considering a $10 per month payment structure for what it claims to be a conversational GenAI service. Developed by a team led by Amazon Vice President Heather Zorn, the service, likely to be christened Remarkable Alexa, features a new technology stack that is designed to include more generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) than what the current Echo model is capable of.
Amazon is eager to see the service go live as soon as possible even though some who are part of the team working on the new Alexa have stated the service might not be fully ready yet. Amazon has set itself the target to launch an Alexa version that is more conversational and is able to complete several tasks with just one prompt. The said Alexa model is also supposed to learn to create routines as well.
However, last heard, the advanced Alexa version is still struggling to accomplish the tasks it has been assigned. If this be true, Amazon might find it hard to convince users to sign up for a paid version of Alexa. In any case, Amazon is eager to see it attain market-ready status by the end of August itself. As it is, the company has seen its device business incur losses of $25 billion during the period 2017 – 2021. No wonder the company is looking at Remarkable Alexa to reverse the losses that its devices segment made.
The company, meanwhile has just weeks back announced the launch of its Rufus generative AI shopping assistant. Buyers will be able to interact with the assistant in the form of simple everyday conversations and the assistant is smart enough to make out what the buyers actually need. It will then be able to recommend products accordingly. Rufus is already available in the US via the Amazon shopping app.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
