In the race to be top dog of voice assistants, Alexa is behind the pack, with Google Assistant leading and Apple’s Siri right behind it. But well past the dawn of the artificial intelligence era, the Amazon assistant needs to pick it up and add AI like the other two. Leaked documents show that Amazon is indeed trying to add AI to Alexa, but it’s too flawed right now for release.
Internal Documents Show Troubles
Google added AI, branding it Gemini, to its Google Assistant last February. Apple started adding AI to Siri in September and will release it fully in a few weeks. Amazon has yet to do the same for Alexa. Perhaps it’s not coincidental that the popularity of these voice assistants follows the timing of the AI releases. As of last July, Google Assistant was used by 88.9 million U.S. users, Siri 84.2 million, and Alexa 75.7 million.
According to an internal memo from earlier this month that was leaked, the new Alexa with AI has a critical latency problem. There is too much delay between a question being asked and Alexa’s response. Frankly, if people wanted to wait for a response, they’d spend the time to ask a search engine for the answer.
So many devices and products are built with Alexa capabilities that Amazon really needs Alexa to have AI. They could sell more Echo smart speakers and possibly sell subscriptions for AI. But this delay is making Amazon fall behind, while Apple and Google gain.
Latency isn’t the only issue. Those testing Alexa with AI have graded it poorly, and older Echo smart speakers may be incompatible with it. If Amazon is looking to sell subscriptions and more Echo speakers, that won’t do. I have two Echo speakers, a thermostat, and a Fire TV that all work with Alexa. I won’t be replacing all of these to work with AI.
When Will Alexa with AI Be Ready?
The internal documents are from August through early November. It’s unknown which of the issues have already been fixed by Amazon. Alexa with AI may be closer to release than the documents make it seem.
More than a year ago, September 2023., Amazon showed a little of what an AI-powered Alexa would be able to do at a press event, noting then that it would be a “massive transformation of the assistant we love.” But how long do users need to wait? They’ve been waiting for 14 months already.
In the decade that we have been feeding questions to Alexa, it’s gone from revolutionary to stale. Users complain that it doesn’t provide the correct answers. I can attest to that. Additionally, it’s not nearly as conversational as voice assistants now need to be. The responses are all canned, and frankly, that’s frustrating.
Additionally, Amazon employees have said there isn’t enough data to train the LLM, that the company is prioritizing other projects, and that other teams, like Alexa Home and Alexa Music, were only interested in getting Alexa with AI to work for their projects.
Three 2024 release dates for Alexa with AI have come and gone. Some employees have suggested the release won’t be until 2025, and writing this on November 19, 2024, I have to think that’s probably more realistic than 2024.
While Amazon reportedly has an impressive list of companies they want to partner with to offer services – such as Uber, Instacart, GrubHub, and Ticketmaster – It’s just “a day late and a dollar short.” The longer it takes, the more Amazon is falling behind Google and Apple.
Image credit: Unsplash
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