The premium version of Alexa is nearly with us; that’s the word from a new report that suggests an October launch date for Amazon’s revamped smart assistant.
According to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post, the upgraded version of the Alexa will require a paid subscription to get access to AI powered news briefings.
The report states that the subscription-Alexa will provide “a new ‘Smart Briefing’ feature that provides daily, AI-generated summaries of news articles selected based on a customer’s preferences.”
Costing up to $10 a month (fees yet to be confirmed) the leaked documents discuss “AI features that help customers curate, summarize, and explore current events ” and drive “recurrent engagement.”
The documents also hint at include helping finding recipes and a chatbot aimed at children.
Back in June when news of this new ‘Remarkable Alexa’ first broke, reports quoted sources describing the move as a “desperate attempt” to turn Alexa into a profitable arm of the business in a “must win” year.
At the time I stated that it did indeed sound desperate…
“If the top dogs at Amazon think making Alexa even more convoluted is a good idea – and then making people pay for the privilege of accessing those smarts then that’s the thing that truly is Remarkable.”
This latest update on the situation hasn’t exactly shifted my view on this. $10 a month to get your news read out by an AI chatbot? Or to have an AI-juiced Alexa as a companion for my kids?
I don’t think I’ll be coughing up and I doubt many others will be either. At least not enough to fill the $25 billion black hole that the Amazon Device business has reportedly cost Bezos and the gang in the past decade.
The good news, on the smart home front, is that it looks as if Alexa will be untouched for now. ‘Classic Alexa’ is set to continue as a ‘free’ service alongside its AI-driven counterpart.
However, given that AI is pretty much baked into every smart home product launch nowadays (or at least fudged into the marketing material) I wouldn’t rule out a smarter AI-powered Echo device landing with Remarkable Alexa in tow some time soon though.
But with Alexa already living rent-free in more than 100 million households, Amazon has a huge problem to solve if it really is draining cash as fast as reports suggest.
