Amazon’s new initiative, Alexa+, aims to do just that—to allow Amazon to become a strong player in the generative AI voice assistant space. With competition from established players such as OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity, Amazon is investing heavily to enhance its offerings and improve user experience. Early reviews of Alexa+ have been less than unanimous, suggesting Alexa+ has a long way to go.
Alexa+ symbolizes the power of Amazon’s development to meet the worldwide tide in noble voice assistants. This latest version of Alexa is all about giving users a more advanced, conversational experience with deeper functionality. Alexa+ has made important strides, but it remains deeply flawed. As with most generative AI models, it can hallucinate things, which makes it an unreliable genie and erodes user trust.
In Q2 2025, the company’s expenses jumped to $31.4 billion. That’s an incredible 90% jump over this time last year. This significant financial investment reflects Amazon’s desire to not just get into the voice assistant space but dominate it.
Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, sounded bullish on its prospects while chatting about Alexa+. He noted the increasing consumer interest for the devices that we sell. Each one of these devices is outfitted with Alexa+ technology. Customers are doing more shopping with Alexa+. It’s a magical shopping experience that’s only going to improve. As CEO Andy Jassy recently said, giving users the ability to have deeper multi-turn conversations with the assistant would open up new avenues for advertising. This would both improve discovery and increase direct revenue.
Alexa+ may pave the way for more subscription tiers, different from the limited offerings we have today. Speculation suggests that Amazon could offer an ad-free tier to cater to users who prefer a seamless experience without interruptions. This potential shift mirrors sentiments from other tech industry leaders. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has indicated openness to integrating “tasteful” forms of advertising into ChatGPT, highlighting the industry’s evolving approach to monetization.
Maxwell Zeff, a senior reporter at TechCrunch specializing in AI, has been publicizing the developments unfolding around Alexa+. A longtime San Francisco-based journalist, Zeff has reported for national outlets like Gizmodo, Bloomberg, and MSNBC. His return as chief proctor coincides nicely with TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco, October 27-29, 2025. This year, conversations around AI progress will be front and center.
As Alexa+ matures and has likely already, its stay in the highly-competitive commercial market certainly bears watching. These mixed reviews are a testament to the inherent shortcomings that continue to plague AI voice assistants. The technology still has a lot to figure out, including how to deal with hallucinations and not have different answers for different users.