Hello Alexa, are you a tad bit smarter now? It’s about time, considering the Amazon Alexa+ release was just made official. After months of building up to a next-generation AI-powered version of the chatbot that has been creatively named Alexa+, Amazon unveiled the Alexa AI upgrade at an event in New York on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. 

“The new Alexa knows almost [everything] in your life—your schedule, your smart home, your preferences, the devices you’re using, the people you’re connected to, and the entertainment you [enjoy],” services chief Panos Panay said during the event. 

Amazon’s Alexa devices have already invaded our living spaces to quite a degree so the thought of the AI knowing everything about us is unnerving at best. Still, there could be some creative applications of the Alexa AI news we’ve received in 2025. 

So what did we learn from the Amazon Alexa+ release?

Alexa+ AI release

Image: According to Amazon’s Alexa+ release event, the assistant will be able to interact with tons of third-party apps right from day one.

The Amazon Alexa+ Release Does Not Bring AI For Free—Is It Worth the Upgrade?

The Alexa event was a big success for Amazon, as the company delved deep into the benefits of inviting the Amazon Alexa AI features into your life. The main selling point of the Amazon Alexa+ release is that the AI-infused assistant is better at holding conversations than ever before, and can really combine all that it learns about you into coherent responses and actions. 

No AI is free from hallucinations and we’re certain Alexa’s AI upgrade will have to be used cautiously, but it is still interesting to see how we’re slowly but surely moving towards a future where we can’t function without our very own J.A.R.V.I.S. to keep us on track.

What’s New With the Amazon Alexa+ Upgrade?

Alexa, as she is right now, is quite capable of listening to instructions and providing stilted but straightforward responses to queries. With Amazon’s Alexa AI integrated, the assistant is expected to be much better at understanding and responding to conversations in a more natural manner, adding some humor to the mix as well. Contextual understanding of conversations is a big part of why Alexa+ will perform better than Alexa.

Alexa+ is also proactive when it’s important—like suggesting you start your commute early when there’s heavy traffic, or telling you a gift you wanted to buy is on sale.

If you have a variety of smart gadgets littered across your home, Amazon’s latest Alexa+ update will allow you to coordinate tasks across them more easily. When you’re listening to music in your room but want it to switch to playing in the kitchen, tell Alexa Plus what you need and it will be able to interpret and follow instructions accordingly. 

From the Amazon Alexa+ release preview, we learned that you can also ask for an overview of what’s going on inside your home through your Ring camera, with specific instructions to bring up footage from a time period through the Smart Video Search.

You can create new routines with voice commands, get recommendations on shows to watch, or even jump to a specific scene on a Prime show you’re watching. Need to order a meal on UberEats or create a study guide from the document your professor shared? Alexa+ will get it done. 

Amazon’s Alexa+ Is Set to Be a Personalized AI Assistant

The AI version of Alexa is set to be significantly more personalized, consolidating your activity from your Amazon account, Prime shows, Kindle reading habits, and other personal information that you share with it to take action. 

According to Amazon, the assistant will be able to learn if you have a preference for vegetarian food or need a gluten-free recipe and make recommendations tailored to these preferences. The more you share with it, whether information or documents, the more it will be able to do. 

Just like Microsoft’s Copilot or Gmail’s Gemini is willing to parse through your emails and documents to summarize or recollect information for you, one of the standout Alexa+ features is its ability to extract information from your documents so you can bring them up anytime, whether that’s a recipe or the instructions from an email from your child’s school.

Amazon latest Alexa+ update

Image: The Alexa+ AI upgrade promises to enhance the experience of using the company’s many devices.

Amazon’s Echo Show Smart Display UI Also Gets a Refresh

Along with the Amazon Alexa+ release, we also got a glimpse into how the user interface on the Echo Show is changing to make it more personalized. The content on these displays will showcase photos, calendars, music recommendations, and other information that is specifically selected for you and your family. 

How Does the Alexa+ AI Work?

According to Amazon’s latest Alexa+ update, the AI model running the show utilizes Amazon Bedrock and is powered by Anthropic and Amazon Nova. The model-agnostic system allows the AI to determine and use the best model for the task request presented to it, making it more versatile in its capabilities. 

To manage all the necessary actions and insights from devices, Amazon created “experts” which are essentially a collection of systems, capabilities, APIs, and instructions that work to fulfill specific requests made by the customers. 

These experts allow control over not just Alexa+, but the other smart gadgets, apps, and services that you might use in your daily life. Its operation is just as complex as it sounds, but its main function is to simplify the life of the user by handling all their tasks in one place.

Amazon also pointed to its partnership with top news providers like Associated Press, Reuters, TIME, USA TODAY, Politico, and others to reassure users that they can expect up-to-date updates on news pieces and ongoing stories from their Alexa Plus.

Amazon Alexa+ Pricing Plans—What’s the Charge Chief?

The Amazon Alexa+ upgrade is priced at $19.99 per month for everyone who wants to give the new AI capabilities a shot. If you already have an Amazon Prime membership, you can access Alexa Plus for free. Amazon’s Prime membership is comparatively more affordable for those who are interested in its full range of services. 

Getting a Prime membership costs $14.99 monthly or $139 annually and you get access to more than just free delivery and Alexa Plus. Economically, it makes a lot more sense to just get the membership instead of limiting yourself to the Alexa+ features and capabilities. 

Amazon Alexa devices

Image: The Alexa+ AI announcement event appears to have been a big success.

Which Amazon Alexa Devices Will be Compatible With the AI Assistant?

Initially, Alexa+ will start rolling out in the U.S. first over the next few weeks before a more global rollout. Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21 will be the first Amazon Alexa devices to get the upgrade so if you’re in the U.S. and already own one of these, you can be among the first to test the AI capabilities out.

Thoughts on the Amazon Alexa+ Release

The Alexa AI news in 2025 is a big step forward from what we had initially expected when the concept was first brought up back in 2023. Alexa and Amazon’s Echo devices have become a staple in many households and cater to everyone, from kids to seniors. Has it performed perfectly so far? Far from it. Alexa often struggles with understanding instructions, even with tasks as simple as playing a specific song.

With Amazon’s latest Alexa+ update, we expect that the assistant will be able to perform significantly better than before and be more capable of picking up on language and context clues to give users what they want. With all of our technology coming with AI built-in these days, having a central hub to control all of it is always useful. 

We’ll have to wait for Amazon’s Alexa devices to receive the upgrade before we can conclude whether the assistant is as impressive as it claims to be. AI hallucinations are not a thing of the past and still intrude on the experience of using any AI tool. While Amazon claims all of these advanced capabilities, we’ll have to wait to assess whether asking Alexa to do these tasks via voice command is indeed any easier than just picking up your phone and doing it yourself.

The response to the Amazon Alexa+ release online seems largely positive, with users curious to see the AI in action. The $19.99 monthly price tag is excessive, but we’re certain it’s just a way to push more consumers towards a Prime membership and submerge them in its services.

Jeff Bezos is in no need of any more money or success—he has enough to last at least 10 lifetimes and then some—but if Alexa Plus is as impressive as it claims to be, it could secure the company’s many devices position as a household staple. Apple’s Smart Home command center is still nowhere to be seen, and even with a release expected this year, it may just be too late to catch up. 

Want more Amazon news? Read about the Amazon Appstore’s shutdown and what it means for consumers. Interested in other tech stories shaking up the world today? Subscribe to Technowize for regular updates on all things tech. 

tagged in Alexa AI news 2025, Alexa AI upgrade, Alexa+ AI announcement, Alexa+ features, Amazon Alexa AI, Amazon Alexa devices, Amazon Alexa+ release, Amazon latest Alexa+ update
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