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It seems that Amazon does not want to be left behind in the era of generative AI, so it is working on an Alexa upgrade for which the possible price has been leaked. The company wants to catch up, while others like Google Gemini are quite ahead of it.
According to a Reuters report, Amazon is working on the “Banyan” project which will bring a generative AI-powered Alexa experience to the public. Like other similar services, everything would revolve around a chatbot capable of understanding natural language. However, Amazon’s service is expected to focus on boosting your shopping experience on the platform.
The Alexa generative AI upgrade would cost between $5-$10 per month
The source claims that the dev team refers to this update as “Remarkable Alexa.” However, that will probably not be the final name of the service once it is available. Additionally, Amazon is considering a price of between $5 and $10 per month for the more capable Alexa generative AI upgrade. Even so, they would also offer a free version with fewer features and possibilities. To date, it is not known what the main functional differences between the paid tier and the free tier would be.
Amazon usually includes multiple perks from some of its services when paying for a Prime membership. However, it seems that will not be the case with “Remarkable Alexa.” The report indicates that Prime users will not gain access to the benefits of the alleged Alexa paid plan. Apparently, the company considers Alexa to be an unprofitable project. People do not use the assistant as much as the company would have liked. So, its impact on sales through Amazon has not been what was initially expected.
Alexa has not been profitable since its launch
However, the company wants to change this with Remarkable Alexa. If the project is successful, it will open up at least two new ways of monetization. First, the paid subscription would serve not only to maintain the service but also to make some profit. Then, the potential success of the Alexa generative AI upgrade would have a positive impact on sales through Amazon.
Amazon would announce the generative AI-powered Alexa experience in August of this year (2024). As mentioned before, they are already far behind services like Google Gemini. But, they could be in time to arrive before the Apple Intelligence full rollout. After all, many of the features announced by Apple will be available next year.