Amazon launches Alexa+ in UK with AI upgrade that promises natural conversations and smart actions

Amazon Alexa's UK personality to change with Echo AI update

Amazon's Echo smart speaker - more commonly known as Alexa - is getting an AI-powered upgrade which will roll out across the UK. Alexa+ turns the digital assistant into a more chatty device which Amazon says will be able to follow threads and be more proactive in its responses. There has been criticism the Echo has stagnated since its launch in 2016, while AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have become much easier to communicate with. "It will be interesting to see how users react to this - we expect this could be polarising, with some enjoying the more relaxed, familiar interactions while others may find it disconcerting," said Jessica Miller, head of data insights at FDM/CCS Insight. "UK consumers will notice an immediate difference," she added. "Using Alexa+ is a very different experience." For example, I asked the current Alexa whether I needed an umbrella today. It responded, "no rain is expected today". At a UK demo of Alexa+, it responded, "actually, you can leave the brolly at home, with sunny skies and no rain in the forecast, you'll be sorted without it". Ed Freed from the marketing agency Rapp UK once described Alexa as "nothing more than expensive kitchen timers" for most users. However, Amazon claims 52% of the UK has tried the Echo out, and there have been 114 billion "interactions" with Alexa in the UK since 2023 - roughly 1,500 interactions per person in the population. Smart speakers have faced criticism for languishing while other AI tools have rapidly taken off. One of Alexa's rivals, Google Nest, is becoming Gemini for Home, incorporating the tech giant's Gemini AI platform, but its smart speaker screen display hardware has not been updated since 2021, notes the Android Police website. Alexa+ will be free for those with an Amazon Prime account (currently £95 per year) or £19.99 a month. New Echo devices will have immediate access, while those with older devices will have to sign up online. The Echo has reportedly cost Amazon billions of dollars in losses and failed to generated a revenue stream, as customers tended to purchase the device itself and then did not buy anything else with it. In 2022 and 2025 Amazon targeted its "device and services" department for redundancies. Even if Alexa+ does not attract huge subscription revenue, having more detailed conversations with the Echo could provide Amazon with more data about its users and help it target ads. Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.

I tried Amazon Alexa+, and I've never been this excited about a smart home assistant before

I have never been quite as excited about a smart home assistant as I am about Amazon's Alexa+. It takes everything I already like about Alexa, and makes it not only smarter and more capable, but also more conversational, intelligent, and natural to use. After a demonstration of Alexa+'s talents ahead of a long-time-coming UK launch, it's shaping up to be the benchmark smart home assistant. Here's why it impressed me so much. Goodbye old Alexa Welcome to the new world What is Alexa+? It's old Alexa, but more capable, more personal, smarter, and able to get things done. While Amazon doesn't use the phrase "agentic," or even AI when discussing Alexa+, if you're familiar with both, then you've already got a grip on what Alexa+ is all about. Alexa+ doesn't sound like old Alexa either. The voice is natural and filled with character and inflection, with an extensive vocabulary, and interestingly for the UK, it knows and understands actual Britishisms. If you want your smart assistant to call you, "mate," or say it'll "have a gander" at an item for you, Alexa+ will quickly become a member of the family. Amazon has removed the typical Alexa-speak too. There's no more careful phrasing to get things done, and instead you can talk to it naturally. This includes things like, "make it dark" and "make it cooler" when controlling lights and heating systems. Alexa+ connects to your calendar, email account, Amazon account, and many third-party apps for music, radio, and bookings, so you can converse naturally when asking it to complete tasks. Saying "complete tasks" actually does Alexa+ a disservice. Throughout all the demos, Alexa+ was active, conversational, and helpful, making it feel like a true assistant helping you through your day. It wasn't completing tasks, it was working with you. It's an important distinction, and a big part of understanding Alexa+'s appeal. Old Alexa is fine, but calling it smart can sometimes be a bit of a stretch. Alexa+ couldn't be any smarter even if it turned up in a tuxedo. What can Alexa+ do? More than ever before Alexa+ uses something called Ambient Intelligence, which gives it contextual awareness, a connected memory across devices, an understanding of things you like and don't like, and for it to be able to do things based on this knowledge. For example, it will learn your routines and preferences, so you could ask it to order "your usual" on a Friday, and it will not only know what you're talking about, but also know which restaurant to order from. It can then email a friend telling them about the booking. Its contextual awareness works everywhere too. Alexa+ knows what's playing on your TV and can answer questions about actors or music. It will take your dietary requirements into account when asking for recipes, and if a friend is joining you, it'll also consider theirs. If Alexa+ is connected to Ring security devices, it will check the door to see if a delivery has arrived. Alexa+ will also use knowledge of your preferences for its tone. If you talk about something you like, it'll match your excitement. If it's something that's not so good, it will act accordingly. There's personality there, and it really separates Alexa+ from existing Alexa's simple character. Just like talking to a friend Natural language is the key The sheer breadth of ability in Alexa+ impressed, but it would be nothing if the way you interacted with it was awkward, difficult, or slow. However, in all the demos I saw, Alexa+ was spoken to entirely naturally, and it rarely misunderstood commands. Any hiccups were almost solely due to connection, or a lot of background noise. Even when it didn't get it quite right, it was still on the right track. It rarely required explanations either, as it was familiar with first names, had access to a calendar, and could see emails sent to it. When asked to email someone else, it read the draft copy back before sending it, and didn't need an actual email address, just the person's name to do it. I loved how all the friction of old Alexa has been removed. No need for specific phrases, no need to tell it the specific device or family of devices, and no need to explain complex tasks. I saw an entire morning routine -- from setting the alarm to turning on specific lights and a coffee machine, syncing with a calendar, and then playing the morning news -- set up verbally by using a single, full, run-on sentence. It played it back as a test, and performed it without issue. There's so much you can do with Alexa+, I was a little worried about how much effort would be required to set the system up. Speaking to the team, Alexa+ will use information already stored in Alexa during setup and due to its contextual understanding, won't need telling more than once where a device is in the home. Additionally, you can ask Alexa+ how to set things up, so there's no need to work it out for yourself. Subscribe to our newsletter for Alexa+ insights Unlock more by subscribing to our newsletter: in-depth explainers, practical setup tips, and expert takes on Alexa+ and smart home assistants to help you use conversational, contextual features with confidence and clarity. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Take this apparent simplicity, the conversational natural speech, and the way Alexa+ has been adapted to cope with tasks we all do around the home, rather than the more work-orientated functionality of Gemini or Copilot, and I can see myself actually making use of its ability. Being able to picture myself using Alexa+ on a regular basis is a massive part of why I'm excited about it, and it's evidence Amazon has got the feature set just right. When can you try Alexa+? How much extra does it cost? While Alexa+ was announced in the US more than a year ago, Amazon has been hard at work localizing Alexa+ for the UK, making sure it's familiar with the 40 different dialects used, the most of any English-speaking country. Alexa is very popular in the UK, with 110 billion interactions taking place since 2023, and more than half UK households own an Alexa device. Alexa+ costs $20 per month in the US and £20 per month in the UK, but it also comes free with an Amazon Prime subscription, making it far better value to use Alexa+ this way. In the UK, early access to Alexa+ will begin on March 18. It works with compatible Alexa devices from Amazon, and will also arrive on Alexa-compatible non-Amazon devices such as Sonos audio products and Fire-equipped smart TVs in the future. If Alexa+ has been available where you live for a while, but you haven't tried it yet, make a point to do so. If you're in the UK, get ready, because Alexa+ is about to change the way you think about Amazon's smart home assistant.

Alexa+ is 'just more delightful,' says Amazon's VP of Alexa and Echo as the service rolls out to thousands of new customers

Alexa+ has landed on UK soil, and while customers wait with anticipation to try the AI-powered virtual assistant, it's a great opportunity to look back. Since the service launched in the US last spring, it's already seen some big changes as customers navigate a new world of assistive smarts and agentic AI. Now, with the service coming to the UK, there's also been a lot of naturalization work to help Alexa+ navigate our regional accents, idioms, and culture -- right the way down to understanding some of our favorite snacks. Having watched some live demos at the launch event this week, I'm most excited to see how natural interacting with Alexa+ will feel -- and according to Daniel Rausch, Amazon's VP of Alexa and Echo, the best summary is "it's just more delightful." We sat down to find out more from Rausch about the rollout, learnings, and ambitions for the future of Alexa+. You can watch the full interview below on our YouTube channel, and make sure to check out the rest of our Amazon Echo and Alexa+ coverage, too! Rausch says the early results have been quite something behind the scenes. "Engagement with Alexa+ is up two to three times over the original Alexa," he explains, calmly confident as he discusses the road till now. "Even things I didn't think could grow, like music, which goes up 25% in terms of streaming time when a customer turns on Alexa+. "It's just more delightful... It's not like customers have 25% more time!" he adds, though he was keen to highlight that the overall increase of engagement owes a lot to some of the exciting new features facilitated by a smarter, faster Alexa. "In the US, I'll use it to book rideshare, or we'll book a table for lunch together. The whole thing is what is elevating that engagement level." Of course, it's never all roses, and certainly not with an Early Access programme. Still, Rausch takes a positive view of these learnings. "I've never shipped a product this easy to report a bug," he jokes, reflecting on what I can only imagine was a hectic first year of service. "You can just say to Alexa what feedback you have, and that helps us to learn there's an edge to sand somewhere." One example of note was the new Alexa+ voice and cadence. "Some customers -- it's a minority of them -- they don't like the new voices," says Rausch. So now, Amazon offers a wider range of voices, and when Alexa+ introduces herself, she offers you the chance to change her settings. Naturally, concerns may remain around always-on devices when it comes to privacy and security, but with 10 years of service in the UK under their belt in addition to their years of US coverage, Rausch seems confident in Amazon's approach. "Customers have the same degree of transparency and control [with Alexa+]... it turns out, if you build products with transparency and control, you also generally speaking meet every regulation and legal requirement." Customers who already know their way around Alexa's Privacy Hub will be glad to know that the service, with all its features, remains the same for Alexa+. "You can see everything Alexa heard, you can delete things... you can control all of your data settings around training. Everything's in the same place, and it applies to the Alexa service as a whole." While all US Prime customers with compatible devices can now register for Alexa+ (or pay a standalone subscription of $19.99), for now, the free beta programme in the UK is limited to the Amazon Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11, Echo Dot Max, and Echo Studio. If you've already got one at home, you can sign up for an Early Access invite now. It'll probably take about the same amount of time for Alexa+ to fully launch in the UK as it did in the US -- so about a year. In that time, we'll see the service come to a wide range of Alexa-enabled devices, including your Fire TV, and it will soon be available in a web browser at alexa.co.uk.

'Alright mate?': Amazon pins UK hopes on AI upgrade of Alexa

Long-awaited Alexa+ aims to get Britons re-engaging with their devices - but it may have its work cut out "Commiserations, mate, Chelsea lost 3-0 in the Champions League last night against Paris Saint-Germain," says Alexa as it attempts to break the news gently to an awaiting Blues fan. Such is the injection of personality and understanding that Amazon hopes will lead to Britons re-engaging with their millions of Alexa devices, restoring it to the cutting edge of voice assistants rather than resigned to being a glorified egg timer. After its early access launch last year in the US, the long-awaited generative AI upgrade Alexa+ is finally making its debut in the UK, supporting eight years of existing devices strewn through more than half of UK households. With the UK being Amazon's most engaged market and more than 40 accents to contend with across the UK and Ireland, the "next-generation ambient AI assistant" has its work cut out for it. The service will be available immediately for new purchases of Amazon's latest generation of Echo and Show devices, with an invite system in operation for existing devices, which Amazon's head of Alexa and Echo, Daniel Rausch, insists will progress faster than it did in the US. "We've eliminated the need for that Alexa-speak, such as 'turn on bedroom lamp two', you can just speak naturally," Rausch said. "Alexa+ knows you, your home, your family. And is available anywhere, any time, as life does not happen in a chat box." Much of the experience has been built in Amazon's AI labs in the UK in Cambridge, but in limited demos Alexa+ butchered the pronunciation of player names and used "zero" instead of "nil" for football scores. Amazon still has work do to. The upgrade is free during its "early access" period, but it remains to be seen whether users will subsequently be willing to fork out £19.99 a month for Alexa+ or take up an Amazon Prime subscription into which it is bundled. Its reception in the US, where it has been widely available since February, has been mixed, with critics complaining of inconsistency and fabrication - two issues that have dogged genAI since its inception. Despite this, Rausch says engagement with Alexa+ has increased month on month, including a 25% increase in music listening and a 50% increase in smart home control, due to the reduced friction and vastly expanded capability. Amazon promises Alexa+ can perform complex multi-stage actions, such as turning off the lights, turning down the thermostat, locking the doors and putting the alarm on all in one command. It also promises to be able to remember your likes and dislikes, the teams or players you support, the movies you like and the music you love, and to be able to do that for different members of your family. But Amazon is also stepping into the world of agentic AI using links with partner services to perform real-world actions on your behalf, such as ordering a takeaway, booking a restaurant in a free slot on your calendar or remembering your mother's birthday and buying her a present - from Amazon, of course. Whether that's enough to revitalise smart speaker sales that have reportedly fallen off a cliff in the UK and stem job losses remains to be seen. Injecting something as powerful as genAI into the ambient environment of millions of homes where any member of the family, including kids whom Alexa+ is much better at understanding, can interact with it also carries great risk. But unlike some competitors, Rausch says Amazon is ready. "With years of experience of building consumer AI products we know you have to intentionally build guard rails into a product from the beginning, so that it doesn't answer problematic questions. Someone is trying to break it every day. It's not something we crow about, but that's why we have the Responsible AI team. That's their entire job."