Amazon (AMZN) is set to radically change the Alexa service by charging a monthly fee while adding AI features. The tech giant has been losing money on its digital voice assistant for the past ten years since its launch on the market.
Amazon May Charge Monthly Alexa Fee
Recent reports suggest that a monthly fee of between $5 and $10 will be charged in an attempt to finally turn Alexa into a profitable part of the AMZN empire. It’s been suggested that the new charge may be introduced at the same time the assistant is renamed Remarkable Alexa. This updated version of the tool is said to be able to handle more complex commands and could be a rival to ChatGPT.
The Alexa assistant has been built into alarm clocks, smart speakers, and other Amazon products since 2014. One of the company’s original hopes was that people would use it to carry out relatively complex tasks like buying products online. However, that hasn’t yet happened, as owners have mainly been using Alexa for simple, repetitive tasks like playing music.
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The basic version of Alexa may remain free to use, with the monthly fee only applied to those users who choose the advanced model. With a growing number of people using ChatGPT and other AI tools to write emails and carry out different tasks, this is seen as being a crucial period for Alexa. An Amazon spokesperson said:
Our vision for Alexa remains the same – to build the world’s best personal assistant. Generative AI offers a huge opportunity to make Alexa even better for our customers
