Amazon is contemplating charging prospects round $5-$10 a month to entry a premium model of its Alexa voice assistant as a part of a serious revamp of the platform, according to a Reuters report, which cites nameless sources. It isn’t the primary time the thought has been made public. In January, stories surfaced that Amazon would launch a paid subscription version of Alexa in June, although that hasn’t occurred but.
A spokesperson for Amazon did not touch upon the attainable payment for a premium service however did verify that generative AI figures closely in plans for Alexa.
“Generative AI provides an enormous alternative,” the spokesperson stated. “We have now already built-in generative AI into completely different elements of Alexa and are working onerous on implementation at scale.”
In accordance with the Reuters report and different tales, Amazon has been struggling to generate profits with Alexa. About half a billion Alexa-powered gadgets, such because the Echo Dot and Echo Show screens and audio system, have been offered all over the world, however the voice know-how hasn’t made a revenue for the corporate because it was launched in 2014.
Now, stories say, Amazon is desperately looking for methods to create new income from Alexa even because the digital assistant competes with generative AI choices like ChatGPT and a brand new model of Siri that will include Apple Intelligence features later this 12 months.
The massive push on constructing a greater Alexa comes after Amazon eliminated several hundred jobs in the division late last year.
As a part of a brand new technology of Alexa, Amazon is pushing to finish a “Outstanding Alexa” tier by August, Reuters stated. The present Alexa service would get replaced by a brand new AI-powered platform, and a extra highly effective AI piece of software program could be made obtainable for extra complicated queries for a month-to-month payment, the information outlet stated. The report says the paid tier would not be included at no cost with Amazon Prime subscriptions.
For present customers, there are plenty of ways to customize Alexa right now.
