For many years, Amazon offered its Alexa devices at relatively low prices, but commercially, the smart speakers often did not meet the company’s expectations. Many customers used the intelligent speakers mainly to control their music systems or hear jokes, rather than using them for shopping, which would have increased Amazon’s revenue as the company hoped.
With a new generation of the voice assistant, this is expected to change. The new Alexa aims to excel in the field of Generative AI (GenAI) and be suitable for intelligent dialogues with complex behavior patterns. However, it might take some time before Alexa reaches this level. Employees have reported significant delays between requests and responses.
This latency could frustrate customers and make Alexa devices, for which Amazon is reportedly planning a subscription model, less attractive. Recent documents indicate that Amazon is struggling with Alexa’s latency issues and receiving surprisingly low satisfaction ratings from users in the beta stage.
Another challenge has emerged: older devices might be incompatible with the new AI functionalities. This could be due to older hardware or suggest that Amazon is using an edge-cloud combination for processing requests. Simple tasks that can be handled without external data are managed by the Echo device without cloud involvement.
However, the leaked documents are only a snapshot, and some issues will likely be resolved before the final release. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that they are working hard to provide more proactive and powerful support on over half a billion Alexa-enabled devices worldwide. Some of the plans seen by Fortune do not reflect the final experience with the new Alexa.
Are millions of older Alexa devices just attractive electronic waste? Not necessarily, as existing functionalities will continue for some time. However, some intelligent AI functionalities might be limited to newer devices. This is due to technical reasons, not planned obsolescence.
Amazon has sold a mid-three-digit million number of Alexa-enabled devices, with about a hundred million still in regular use. Users have complained that existing Alexa devices do not understand their requests as well as they used to. Whether this is true or if expectations have risen due to advancements like Chat GPT is hard to determine.
The competition for the best GenAI assistant is intense. Amazon is a major provider of cloud and GenAI applications but is just one among many, including Microsoft/OpenAI and Google. Amazon faces challenges in gathering the data needed to optimize the new large language model required for Alexa’s training. This shows that creating GenAI products for broad user bases with diverse scenarios is not easy, and all major players are investing significant resources.
Given the substantial investments in voice assistants and related hardware over the past decade, Amazon has much at stake. Amazon is wise to wait rather than release an unfinished product that might disappoint customers. Especially if the new AI Alexa is offered as a subscription model, customers will expect more than from a piece of hardware sold at a low price.