Four Reasons To Care About Amazon’s Alexa+

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We are entering a new age of virtual assistants. Over just two days, two of the industry giants—Google and Amazon—have transitioned their smart home devices to next-generation AI-powered assistants that do much more than traditional chatbots. Amazon’s ecosystem now runs on Alexa+ moving forward, while Google Assistant is paving the way with Gemini.

Amazon holds a significant edge here, with hundreds of millions of devices ready for the Alexa+ upgrade—either directly or indirectly. As previously noted, the real highlight isn’t the hardware itself but the convenience it provides, mostly driven by the Alexa+ assistant.

Below are four key features of Alexa+ that I find most impressive—and I recommend you pay attention to them as well.

It doesn’t feel like talking to a robot

Let’s start with the basics. Alexa+ is much more conversational and doesn’t require you to say the wake word (“Hey Alexa” or “Hey Echo”) every time. Once activated, the assistant stays engaged, making interactions feel more natural and reducing the sense that you’re speaking to a programmed machine.

Built on the same foundation as other large language models like Google Gemini or ChatGPT, Alexa+ can participate in fluid conversations and improve over time by learning your preferences, routines, and daily habits.

But sometimes, you need the assistant to get things done rather than chat. That’s where its conversational skills shine. Instead of navigating through routines or giving repetitive commands, you can just ask Alexa+ to handle the task, and it will follow through.

For instance, you can say, “Turn on the garage lights when I arrive and lower the thermostat,” and it will do just that—no need for complex rules or automation shortcuts. If the command isn’t clear enough, Alexa+ will ask for clarification rather than balking with an error message.

It’s smarter in the true sense

Alexa+ isn’t just an assistant; it’s a comprehensive knowledge hub. Trained with a vast array of data spanning math, history, and more, it can respond to questions on virtually any topic with a natural conversational tone. Whether you want an in-depth explanation like a college professor or a simple summary suitable for a fifth-grader, it adapts to your needs.

This quick shift from casual chat to detailed explanation is especially helpful in households with members of various ages and interests. Additionally, it now has real-time awareness of current events and provides accurate, up-to-date information, avoiding the common problem of “hallucinations” in AI chatbots.

Thanks to partnerships with reputable sources—such as Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, TIME, Forbes, Business Insider, Politico, USA Today, Conde Nast, Hearst, Vox, and more—Alexa+ offers reliable news updates and personalized briefings. “With Alexa+ Daily Briefings, you can get a rundown of trending news tailored to your interests—from sports updates to pop culture headlines,” Amazon explains.

It’s everywhere

One of the most underrated benefits of Alexa+ is its ubiquity. Whether on a smart display, speaker, TV, smartphone, or through a web browser on your laptop, it’s accessible across devices. It even integrates with work-related services like email and calendars, learning from your interactions to help whenever you need it.

The continuity of memory and context across devices is a major upgrade. For example, you can start a conversation with Alexa+ on your Echo device, continue it on your phone or in your car, and pick it up on your computer—all seamlessly. It’s designed to be available wherever you are.

This interconnectedness means Alexa+ can remember your preferences, information about others, documents, meeting details, and more, all for future reference. You can get quick updates on your schedule, check the status of an email chain, turn routine tasks into engaging learning sessions for kids, and much more—regardless of which device you’re using.

It can even skip to specific scenes in Prime Video, monitor smart home cameras, track music releases, and handle interactions without dependence on a single device.

It’s agentic beyond hype

The most futuristic application of Alexa+ involves executing multi-step tasks on your behalf with full awareness of your preferences. It can learn your dietary habits, recognize items in your pantry through cameras, and reorder supplies automatically. But that’s just scratching the surface.

It can browse the internet, perform actions across various services—like reserving a table on OpenTable, booking event tickets with TicketMaster, or scheduling a spa appointment on Vagaro—entirely autonomously. Thanks to Amazon’s extensive partnerships, the range of services accessible via voice commands will only expand.

Moreover, Alexa+ can manage smart home routines by understanding and performing complex commands based on your descriptions. However, access to these advanced features generally requires a Prime membership or a subscription fee, such as $20 per month, to unlock the full potential of this next-generation AI assistant.