Well, you could ride a donkey down to the bottom of that gap.
Fun fact: from 2017 to 2021, Amazon’s devices lineup (most notably the Echo line), incurred losses of over $25 billion. And in a new strategy to get this part of the business out of the red, they plan on launching a paid version of their Alexa voice assistant.
And this won’t just be the standard Alexa experience. This new paid version incorporates generative AI, allowing for a more “conversational” Alexa. It will be capable of more tasks, naturally, but also of learning its users’ routines.
All that said, employees are not certain this new, beefed-up Alexa will catch on with users. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a member of the team working on the Alexa project said that they’re racing towards a deadline to get the subscription in gear, even though the tech might not be there yet. And there are reports that Amazon has fallen behind on the project, with Alexa falling behind in the company’s assigned mission of being “the world’s best personal assistant”.
Employees are also worried that people may not want to spend on a higher end Alexa experience, especially on top of the $139/year cost of an Amazon Prime subscription. Especially when you consider that, much like the currently available base Alexa, their competitors – ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and in a short time Siri – all incorporate AI assistant features already, and for no additional cost. And with the basic Alexa service remaining free, Amazon may face an uphill battle on top of stiff competition when it comes to getting customers to pay for this new tier of Alexa.
Source: The Verge
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