Alexa With Generative AI Superpowers Is Going To Come At A Monthly Cost
Amazon Alexa is part of the gang of very popular virtual assistants that currently exist, joined by the likes of Siri and Google Assistant at the top (sorry, Bixby). At the moment, the other two have gotten (or at least announced) generative AI boosts (Google Assistant on its own hasn’t, but that’s why Google Gemini is bound to take its place). It was only a matter of time before Amazon Alexa was added to the mix and it looks like that time is soon.
The only thing about Alexa getting generative AI eventually is that it likely won’t be free — at least part of it. Reports say that Amazon is planning to add two tiers of generative AI magic to Amazon Alexa. The first tier would be relatively basic and would be available to users for free. However, the second tier would likely be a more powerful and more capable variant which you would need to pay money for.
It’s said that the higher tier is going to be on a monthly subscription which could cost anywhere between $5 and $10 each month. Knowing there’s a free tier makes things better, as it is similar to the models that Google and OpenAI have.
Amazon Has Been Letting Go Of Alexa, But Perhaps This Can Breathe Some New Life Into The Assistant
Did you know that there’s an Alexa app for Android? If you didn’t know that, I don’t blame you, because I don’t think anyone downloads the app to use that virtual assistant over the other one’s available on Android. That’s why Alexa users are primarily people who own Alexa-enabled devices like Echo products, TVs, and smart speakers.
Right now, Alexa is unprofitable for Amazon. In fact, Alexa has never been profitable for the company, which is a shame. The company is clearly hoping that by bringing the platform up to modern standards with the integration of AI, it’ll become more appealing to the masses, and potentially actually be useful for helping people who are looking to make purchases on Amazon. After all, that was the original ambitious goal of the virtual assistant. I’d rather just pull out my phone to buy more toilet paper rather than tell a screen-less Alexa to do that for me.
If this new strategy somehow fails for Amazon and Alexa, don’t be surprised if the online retail giant decides to wind down its investment in the virtual assistant. You can only take so much of a loss before deciding to call it quits.
