There’s been talk of Amazon adding generative AI and conversational skills to Alexa for a while now, and those rumors don’t seem to be going away. A new CNBC report claims that Amazon will be unveiling a “souped-up” version of its voice assistant later this year — though you may need to pay if you want to have access.
That’s right, sources claim that this subscription will not be part of Amazon Prime subscription. So unlike services like Prime Video or Amazon Music, which are bundled into the Prime plan, everyone may have to pay extra for Alexa 2.0. However it’s claimed that the price of this subscription hasn’t been finalized just yet.
Which all sounds well and good, even if it does feel like Amazon is playing catch up. Whether anyone will actually be willing to pay for this new generative AI-infused Alexa is another matter entirely. While premium subscriptions are nothing new in the chatbot world, there is still typically a free version anyone can use.
It may be limited, but for the casual user it’s probably enough. At the very least it’s a tool that could prompt some people to pay for premium access and see how much better it is. So if Amazon is thinking about locking the new Alexa behind a paywall, it would be wise to offer some kind of free access as well. At the very least, free to Prime members.
Obviously we’ll just have to be patient and wait to see how this all plays out in the future. Because right now we have no idea when the Alexa chatbot might launch, let alone all the details about pricing and features.
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