Waiting for Alexa: When Will Amazon Strike Up the AI Conversation? – PYMNTS.com

Someday and it may be soon conversations withAmazonsautomated voice assistantAlexamay cost money. Amazon has been clear about its intentions to charge a subscription for a tiered Alexa service since last September.Butimprovements to voice technology driven by artificial intelligence (AI) may force the issue.

Asan Amazon spokesperson confirmed to PYMNTS Wednesday (May 22), that integrating generative AI into Alexa is in development,and was mentioned by CEO Andy Jassy in his most recentshareholder letterin which he referenced AI as part ofdozensof potential applicationsincludinganeven more intelligent and capable Alexa.Other company executives past and present have been on the record about the improvements AI can bring to the technology as well asthe costs it will add to production.

But before we would start charging customers for this and I believe we will it has to be remarkable,David Limp, the former Amazon executive in charge ofAlexa,toldBloombergin September 2023.It has to prove the utility thatyourecoming to expect from thesuperhumanassistant. I can paint a line from whereweregoing to be right now, whichwerenot going to charge for, to something that will have so much utility for everymember of the household. Wedonthave an idea of a price yet.Welltalk to customers and learn fromthem,what they believe the value is.

When will that happen? Morerecent reportsput the debut of Alexa Plus by the end of the year, but there is no more specific information. The only Alexa application currently under a subscription model isAlexa Together,whichwasdevelopedfor elderly care and connectivity among family caregivers. However, the company recently announced thatit will not be supportedafter June 25.

Using AI to power voice commerce and intelligent conversations was a development predicted by PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster as early as April 2023. In a column she wrote at that time, she predicted that technology would integrate voice and enable commerce from any connected device, positioning voiceto bea dominant means of interactions and transactions.Andshenoted,researchfrom PYMNTS Intelligencethat showed nearly 30% of U.S. consumers at that time would pay a monthly fee to access a voice assistant thatcanhandle complex commands and commerce.Not to mention her predictions about AI.

Artificial intelligencewill make voice interactions smart, personalized, adaptiveandengaging,she wrote.As in truly engaging conversational in every sense of the word. Not just reactive to a wake word and a series of prompts, but proactive and intuitive, anticipating actions based on history and context and anticipating what consumers might want to do next, just like an effective, smart, capable human assistant would do.

According to a September 2023 blogpost,the new Alexa might have been listening. It willbe basedon a new large language model (LLM)thatsbeen custom-built for voice interactions and aimed at getting real-time information, efficient smart home control, and maximizing home entertainment. The postsets outfive foundational capabilities: conversation, real-world utilities like smart home commands, personalization, personalityandtrust.

The emergence of AI, along with sophisticated chatbots and voice functionalities, is transforming the landscape of digital assistants at a time when consumers increasingly rely on technology to manage various daily tasks.

According toPYMNTS Intelligence, consumers devote 26% of their weekdaytimeand 28% of their weekend time to multitasking.While one might typically associate the integration of digital technology with activities like online shopping which accounts for only about a quarter of multitasking time the rest is spentmanaging work-related tasks, home upkeep, and staying in touch with family members, among others.

In the April 2023 study titled How Consumers Want to Live in the Voice Economy,PYMNTS Intelligence discovered that consumers are eager to streamline their daily routines usingsmart, simple and more interconnected solutions. Hands-free voice technologies are increasingly popular for tasks such asretrieving information, voice identification, or booking flights. On average, consumers engaged in six different tasks using voice technology over the past year.

The data also highlights a growing preference for voice-driven interfaces, with 54% of surveyed consumers indicating they would choose voice technology in the future for its speed over traditional typing or touch interactions.

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Waiting for Alexa: When Will Amazon Strike Up the AI Conversation? - PYMNTS.com