Alexa's AI upgrade: What it means for Amazon's business and Alexa users
GeekWire
GeekWire
4.4 • 116 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week: Michael Levin and Josh Lowitz of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) discuss the state of Amazon's Alexa and Echo business, and what the recently announced Alexa+ service means for the company and users. CIRP studies consumer behavior to provide insights for investors and industry leaders.
Related links and coverage
- CIRP: Amazon Report on Substack. (Check out CIRP's Apple Report, as well.)
- CIRP's Amazon Report: Alexa, Should I Pay for Alexa+? Or Get a New Echo?
- GeekWire: Amazon’s new Alexa+ uses generative AI to personalize conversations and automate tasks
- Amazon: Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa
With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop; Edited by Curt Milton.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This Geekwire podcast is brought to you by BECU. |
| 0:03.6 | Stay tuned to the break as Brian Westbrook interviews BECU's Stacey Black about minimizing the impact of uncertain times on your financial health. |
| 0:13.4 | For more money hacks, check out geekwire.com slash BECU. |
| 0:19.0 | My daughter does that, uses Ziggy to distinguish between our echo in the living room and the one in her room. |
| 0:25.0 | We actually have Echo Alexa's Ziggy and computer to make things more wakeable. |
| 0:30.4 | I'm a hobbyist, but it's an oddly inexpensive hobby. |
| 0:34.0 | Are you with me, Todd? |
| 0:35.0 | Wait a second. |
| 0:35.7 | Is this an intervention for Josh and me? |
| 0:37.6 | Is that what's going on? |
| 0:40.2 | Alexa Plus will be available for free to all prime members. |
| 0:47.4 | If you're not a prime member, they're going to charge 1999 a month for access to Alexa Plus. |
| 0:55.3 | Like who would do that? |
| 0:56.1 | Well, you have to really hate Amazon to pay $5 extra to not shop there. |
| 1:05.5 | Welcome to Geekwire. |
| 1:09.1 | I'm Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop. |
| 1:35.0 | For many years, Amazon has been trying to put its Alexa voice assistant at the center of the smart home. But right now, at times, Alexa in its current state, can seem downright dumb. And for anyone who has used voice interaction modes in popular generative AI chatbots, the obvious question has become, why the heck can't Alexa talk to me like chat GPT does? |
| 1:39.0 | Well, now it will, or at least that's what Amazon is promising. |
| 1:45.3 | Amazon's Alexa Plus is an upgraded version of its AI powered assistant that promises more natural conversations, improved context awareness across smart devices, and more seamless and proactive |
| 1:51.2 | integration into daily routines. It's rolling out in the next few weeks, starting on newer |
| 1:56.1 | echo devices, and I'm pleased to be joined today by two people who pay very close attention to this |
| 2:01.3 | portion of Amazon's business. Michael Levin and Josh Lowitz are co-founders of Consumer Intelligence |
... |
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