What to expect from Amazon’s big Alexa event this week

Amazon is holding a press arena this week, wherever we expect it to yet motorboat its “new” Alexa. This could beryllium the opening of a awesome displacement successful really we usage generative AI successful our homes, aliases it could beryllium a large disappointment.

The second seems likely, based connected the delays and persistent rumors that the sound adjunct is struggling pinch its revamp. But I’m hoping we’ll astatine slightest extremity up location successful the mediate — pinch a smarter, much useful Alexa, if not the “superhuman assistant” Amazon has promised.

The event, scheduled for 10AM connected Wednesday, February 26th, successful New York City, is being hosted by Amazon’s caller devices and work main Panos Panay, which is simply a beardown hint there’ll beryllium caller hardware. The flagship fourth-gen Amazon Echo speaker is measurement past owed for an upgrade, and pinch smart glasses being truthful basking correct now, I could spot Alexa getting cozier connected our faces.

Here’s a look astatine what we expect from the event, what not to expect, and what we dream is coming. Remember to tune successful to The Verge’s unrecorded blog connected Wednesday.

I expect Amazon to denote the long-awaited presence of its caller Alexa, which has been rearchitected and infused pinch generative AI — courtesy of its LLMs, including Titan and reportedly immoderate of Anthropic’s Claude.

First announced successful the fall of 2023, the revamp of Amazon’s once trailblazing AI sound assistant has been a agelong clip coming. While it’s good to group a timer aliases play euphony and move your lights off, the existent Alexa has struggled to find intent successful a world dominated by ChatGPT, Gemini, and their ilk.

The caller “Remarkable Alexa,” arsenic it’s reportedly called, should understand earthy speech, construe context, respond to aggregate requests successful a azygous command, and return action connected your behalf pinch either deeper API integrations and / aliases genuine agentic abilities.

All of this intends that we should beryllium capable to talk to Alexa without utilizing clunky nomenclature and get much useful responses (assuming Amazon has managed to squash Alexa’s reported need to show off).

For smart location control, we should beryllium capable to opportunity a bid like, “Alexa, move retired the lights, fastener the backmost door, and move the thermostat to Sleep — oh, and play slumber sounds successful the bedroom,” and the Assistant will do it all.

Amazon’s caller Alexa should besides beryllium tuned successful to your smart location and its capabilities. At CES this year, I said pinch companies moving connected integrations pinch the caller Alexa, utilizing the caller developer devices Dynamic Controller and Action Controller that Amazon announced successful 2023. Then Amazon said it was moving pinch GE Cync, Philips Hue, GE Appliances, iRobot, and Roborock connected features that would let the Assistant to amended understand what you want devices to do. For example, opportunity “Alexa, the level is dirty,” and it will nonstop retired your robot vac.

GE Cync’s Carmen Pastore confirmed to The Verge that the smart lighting institution is moving connected integrating what he called “Amazon Alexa Reflex” to simplify lighting segment power pinch earthy connection sound commands.

This is wherever Alexa tin differentiate itself. The sound adjunct could bring worth if it tin fuse its existent capabilities pinch generative AI-powered improvements. However, reports propose this has been a challenge, pinch the caller Alexa prone to hallucinating aliases refusing to turn connected lights. It’s besides an area competitors Apple and Google, who are tackling the aforesaid situation pinch Siri and Google Assistant, are reportedly struggling with.

Thanks to the billions of inexpensive Alexa-enabled devices successful people’s homes, Amazon has a caput commencement successful the smart home. However, the flagship Echo fourth-gen smart speaker is now 4 years old. The institution has said its caller Alexa will tally connected each existent hardware, but I expect the improved sound adjunct will travel pinch a shiny caller location — particularly considering Panay, the caller devices and services chief, has awesome hardware chops, courtesy of his clip astatine Microsoft building the Surface line.

When it announced the caller Alexa successful 2023, Amazon launched the Echo Hub smart location controller and the third-gen Echo Show 8 smart location display. While we mightiness spot an Echo Hub 2.0, the shape is group for a caller Echo speaker pinch a caller design, improved processing power, section control, and much smart location sensors.

While the location is Alexa’s comfortableness zone, Amazon could proceed pushing america to usage Alexa connected the spell pinch caller Echo Frame smart glasses and a 3rd procreation of the flagship Echo Buds, making the smarter Alexa accessible wherever we are.

At the 2023 event, Amazon showed disconnected respective caller AI features connected its Fire TV line, including an improved Alexa search and generative AI screensavers, on pinch a new soundbar and souped-up Fire TV sticks. While caller capabilities are likely, it’s besides imaginable we’ll spot new, much powerful Fire TV hardware, possibly pinch Thread and Matter functionality built in, to thief powerfulness deeper integration betwixt Fire TV, Alexa, and the smart home. We’ll person to hold and see.

We astir apt won’t spot a slew of caller devices. There wasn’t a accepted autumn hardware arena successful 2024. Instead, Amazon has announced a dependable travel of caller products complete the past fewer months, including caller Kindles and 2 caller Echo Shows. And earlier this month, Ring announced its first 2K-capable information camera, and Eero expanded its statement of Wi-Fi 7 routers. All of this points to this arena being conscionable astir Alexa and ways to pass pinch the AI.

Amazon has said publically that it’s considering charging for the caller Alexa, pinch reports suggesting a value betwixt $5 and $10 a month. Some person said it will beryllium free for a constricted time.

Reuters reported that Amazon could make $600 cardinal annually if conscionable 10 percent of its users paid $5 per period for the service. Considering that Amazon reportedly mislaid complete $25 billion connected its Alexa division, this would beryllium a much-needed boost for the product.

A subscription-based Alexa would beryllium a first for the company, but it’s reasonably communal pinch AI services. In the smart home, we’ve already seen features for illustration AI-powered video hunt from Ring and Google Home down paywalls.

But will you salary for a amended Alexa? If it tin present connected its promises and much — maybe. The caller Alexa needs to create capable worth for users. One area it tin do this is by solving circumstantial problems. For example, I tested the Skylight Calendar, whose AI adjunct could negociate my household’s almanac for me. It costs $80 a twelvemonth but is genuinely useful.

Making Alexa really useful is Amazon’s biggest hurdle. It doesn’t person the individual discourse that competing assistants for illustration Siri and Google Assistant person by being embedded successful your phone. If Amazon tin find a measurement to link to that individual data, mixed pinch the discourse it has astir your home, it could get there. It’s a large if, and Amazon has a immense spot and privateness upland to climb to get there.