Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation claim that Amazon is planning significant reforms to its loss-making Alexa service for a decade, including the introduction of generative AI and considering charging around $5 to $10 per month (about 36 to 73 Chinese yuan currently) for the advanced version.
The project is internally known as "Banyan" (a lush banyan tree), and this will be the first significant reform of the voice assistant since its launch in 2014. sources said that Amazon has named the new voice assistant "Remarkable Alexa".
The sources for this news include eight current and former employees who have worked on Alexa. Three of the informed sources said that Amazon's deadline for its employees is August, asking them to prepare the latest version of Alexa, and noted that CEO Andy Jassy also personally hopes to see Alexa regain vitality. In the shareholder letter in April, Jassy promised to build a "smarter and more capable Alexa," but did not provide more details.
Informed sources also pointed out that Amazon's plans for Alexa, including pricing and release dates, may be changed or canceled depending on the progress of the Banyan project.
An Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement, "We have integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa and are working on scalable deployment to provide users with more proactive, personalized, and trusted assistance." Currently, there are already over 500 million Alexa-enabled devices in households around the world.
For Amazon, it is crucial to keep up with competitors in the field of generative AI, as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, among others, have gained more attention with their AI chatbots. In addition, Apple is also advancing its own AI strategy, including introducing generative AI technology to its Siri voice assistant.
Some Amazon employees involved in the project said that the Banyan project represents a "desperate attempt" to revitalize this never-profitable service (Alexa). In the past 18 months, with the rise of formal AI products, Banyan has been found to be a bit caught off guard. These employees said that executives told them that this year is a critical year and a must-win year for the Alexa service.
According to sources, by embedding AI, Amazon expects Alexa users to seek shopping advice from it, such as which gloves and hats to buy for a mountaineering trip, similar to a text-based service that Amazon launched earlier this year on its website named Rufus.
Some sources also indicated that in addition to the free version, Amazon will also launch a more powerful paid version of Alexa. The latter uses more powerful AI software to handle more complex queries and prompts, but users will have to pay at least $5 per month. In addition, Amazon has also considered a price of approximately $10 per month.