Amazon's Alexa+ Surpasses 100,000 Users Amidst Feature Limitations

Amazon has rolled out its generative AI-powered digital assistant, Alexa+, to over 100,000 users, marking a significant but still small step compared to the 600 million Alexa devices in use. Alexa+ aims to enable more natural, conversational interactions and eventually perform actions using third-party apps, similar to AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, several key features demonstrated at launch—such as third-party app integration, bedtime story creation, and gift idea brainstorming—are not yet available, with no clear timeline for their release. CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged the technology remains 'primitive' and 'inaccurate,' with accuracy rates for multi-step AI agents between 30% and 60%, and set a target of 90% accuracy for Alexa+'s web-browsing agent, Nova Act. Jassy also highlighted that Alexa+'s rollout is progressing faster than Apple’s delayed launch of its LLM-powered Siri, as Apple cited needing more time for development. Both companies are grappling with the challenge of integrating advanced large language models into practical consumer tools.