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Amazon’s newly updated AI voice assistant Alexa+ officially started rolling out to select customers roughly six weeks ago, but real-world users are hard to find.
Reuters claims it searched "dozens" of news sites, as well as social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, X, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitch, but was unable to find any verifiable Alexa+ users. Reuters did find two users on Reddit who claimed they had used the updated tool, but these users weren’t able to provide any hard evidence they had really accessed it or verify their identities.
Amazon says the newly revamped Alexa will provide a more humanlike conversational flow, describing it as the end of "Alexa voice" at April's product reveal. The tech giant has also promised numerous ambitious-sounding "agentic AI" features that "will enable Alexa to navigate the internet in a self-directed way to complete tasks on your behalf, behind the scenes." For example, arranging to have the user's oven fixed with a service provider, without any intervention beyond the initial command.
The tech company largely denied the reports in a statement to Reuters, saying that “hundreds of thousands of customers now have access to Alexa+,” adding that though many of the users are Amazon employees, “the overwhelming majority are customers that requested early access.”
Meanwhile, Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, commented that the irregularities in the Alexa+ release fit “a pattern of a lot of companies announcing services or products when they are close to being ready, but not quite—that last mile is a lot farther away than they anticipated.”
We know the Alexa+ project was hit by numerous setbacks ahead of the official launch. In February, the AI upgrade was delayed by a full month past its initial deadline, reportedly due to a “new version of the assistant giving incorrect answers to test questions at a recent meeting,” according to an anonymous employee who spoke to The Washington Post. The project had previously been delayed around the time of the US presidential election in November.
When it does eventually roll out fully, Alexa+ will cost $19.99 a month but will be free for Amazon Prime subscribers.