In the least surprising news of the week, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed that the company explored means of disseminating advertisements to Alexa Plus, its new generator-Ai vocal assistant. During a conference call after the report on the results of the second quarter of the company, Jassy said that “there will be opportunities, because people engage in more multiple conversations [with Alexa Plus]For advertising to play a role in helping people find discovery, and also as a lever to generate income. »»
Basically, people will speak more with Alexa, so there will be more ways to push them advertisements. He also suggested that Alexa Plus, which is currently free for prime members but which would cost $ 19.99 per month without a bonus, could one day cost more. “While we continue to add features [there] This could be a kind of subscription element beyond what is today, “he said.
Considering the Amazon division of Amazon, which includes Alexa and Echo, would have had trouble earning money, Jassy is looking for means to make her new thing hot, Alexa Plus, more profitable. Invoicing non -prisms $ 20 per month may seem one way. But who will pay $ 20 when you can spend $ 15 on bonus and get Alexa Plus, as well as all the privileged advantages?
Advertising is the obvious path, because advertisements already exist on Amazon Echo devices with ordinary Alexa on board. These include those in full screen on Echo Show Intelligent Displaces that appear at random and cannot be removed.
Another way in which Alexa pushes advertisements is with her “by fact” functionality, which provides suggestions to an answer after asking for something. These often involve encouraging you to buy something Amazon.
When Amazon announced Alexa more in February, I asked the head of Panos Panay devices and services if “by the way” and full screen advertisements remain. “I don’t think many of these changes,” he said, adding that advertising models on devices like Echos are designed to reduce costs for customers.
I have been testing Alexa more for a few weeks now and I have not seen advertisements or received from “by way”. But the assistant is still in a beta phase of early access, and it seems that the plan is that this new Alexa will come with new ways of pushing advertisements. But I really want this not the case.
Regarding what it might look like, in 2022, Amazon said that he had developed customer feature to ask Alexa who would allow brands to submit their own answers to the questions that people asked Alexa, as “How can I remove the animal hair from my carpet?” Alexa Plus, with her more shovel and more useful character, would be an ideal platform to provide this type of sponsored result. But that will not cut him if Amazon will succeed in making Alexa plus the “best personal assistant in the world”, which is the declared objective of Jassy. Why would anyone choose to use an assistant who is paid to push specific products?
One of these higher levels for Alexa Plus Jassy has alluded could be an advertising version, as Techcrunch first speculated. Amazon did exactly that with a first -rate video, creating a higher price, a level without advertising and the start of everyone to advertisements. But anyway, Alexa will really have to prove its value if we want to pay for her new capacities.
Based on my initial tests of Alexa Plus, it is not at a point where I can delegate my daily tasks and tasks, as I would do if I could afford to hire a real personal assistant. But the potential is there.
There is no doubt that the generator will transform the way we use digital vocal assistants, and Amazon is one step ahead. He actually launched his reworked assistant with more conversational abilities in natural language, something that Apple or Google only seem to do. Alexa Plus is also one of the rare generative services fueled by AI which can take measures in real life.
The question of whether people will be ready to pay for AI’s features are still being tested. OPENAI, Google, Anthropic and others currently have different levels of access to their most advanced AI-Chatbot tools. As a user of Alexa for many years, I would plan to pay a Really The good Alexa who does what I ask without fail, has all the features promised by Amazon, and never shows me an ad. However, what I know with certainty that I do not want is a sharpener of products at home at home.
