Amazon’s next-gen Alexa+ AI arrives with missing features

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Amazon has officially started rolling out Alexa+, its new AI-powered voice assistant, but the launch isn’t living up to the hype. 

While Amazon is marketing it as the future of smart assistants, early users are finding it limited, glitchy, and far from polished.

Alexa+ was announced earlier this year as Amazon’s response to ChatGPT and Google Gemini, aiming to bring more natural conversations, personalized routines, and even email summarization. 

However, despite these promises, most of these features aren’t working properly or are missing altogether. (via: The Washington Post)

Adding to the disappointment, Alexa+ isn’t free. It comes with a $20 per month subscription fee.

For now, only select Echo Show devices are getting the upgrade, but even those are having trouble running it smoothly. 

Reports suggest that Alexa+ gives robotic, error-prone responses, and many advanced features don’t work as expected. 

For example, summarizing documents and emails requires uploading content to the Alexa app, which many find inconvenient. 

Even Amazon’s own internal documentation warns that Alexa+ may not function reliably.

Some testers say Alexa+ is better at handling basic questions compared to the older Alexa, but it struggles with consistency. 

Often, instead of giving direct answers, it defaults to web searches, much like Apple’s Siri. 

Key promised features, such as AI-generated bedtime stories and custom routines, are completely missing in this early release.

Amazon had strong reasons to develop its own large language model (LLM). The company was an early leader in smart home technology, putting Alexa in millions of households. 

But now, as Google and OpenAI rapidly advance AI capabilities, Amazon is feeling the pressure to keep up.

Unfortunately, this first version of Alexa+ feels more like a beta test than a proper launch. 

Amazon has not provided a timeline for when a broader rollout will happen or when the missing features will be available.

What do you think about Alexa+ so far? Do you think you’ll subscribe to it anytime soon? Tell us below in the comments, or reach out to us via our Twitter or Facebook.