Amazon is planning to introduce a
paid subscription tier
of its voice assistant, Alexa, later this year. The paid version, expected to debut as "
Alexa Plus
," the
voice assistant
would be powered by a newer model, what’s being internally referred to as “Remarkable Alexa,” which would provide users with more conversational and personalized AI technology as reported by the Insider.
The team has already tested the model with about 15,000 customers and plans to release the subscription model on June 30. However, sources familiar with the matter say that the launch could be pushed ahead because of the internal conflict.
At last year’s Amazon hardware event, Dave Limp, the former hardware head and improved version of Alexa, the “Remarkable Alexa.” This new version of Alexa uses Amazon's latest speech-to-speech LLM model, which makes the assistant sound more human-like compared to the current version.
During the event, this new and improved Alexa was able to converse with users, asking questions and even laughing or sounding cheerful or sad, depending on the context of the conversation.
A limited preview with 15,000 external customers found the new and improved Alexa is not as great as it was on stage. Although testers found it to be generally good, the responses were not up to the expected standards. There are instances of inaccurate information being shared. Even the quality of responses has not improved compared to the current version of Alexa, and there are still inaccuracies.
The new Alexa does not meet the quality standards expected for Alexa Plus, and Amazon is not happy with this. The company is working on completely changing Alexa's technology stack in order to improve its performance and meet the high standards expected for Alexa Plus. And that is the reason for internal rifts within Amazon. The Classic Alexa team wants to use their old technology, causing complexity and internal politics.
Some are questioning the idea of charging for Alexa. People familiar with the matter say that there is uncertainty regarding whether or not people will be willing to pay for Alexa. People who already pay for an Amazon service, such as Amazon Music, may not be eager to spend more money to access the newer version of Alexa, notes a person.
"If this fails to get revenue, Alexa is in trouble," one of the sources told the Insider
Limp stated that Echo users will have a "free preview" of Alexa's new features. However, in an interview with Bloomberg, Limp confirmed that Amazon plans to charge extra for this premium version of Alexa.
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