Amazon's Alexa AI Upgrade Faces Delays Due to Slow Response Times

The reason we don't have Alexa with AI yet? It's still too dumb - Softonic

According to an insider, Amazon's artificial intelligence with Alexa takes a long time to respond to questions While Google and Microsoft have made huge strides in generative AI and conversational chatbots, there is a big name in the world of smart assistants from which we haven't heard anything. Yes, we are talking about Amazon and its globally used service called Alexa. And it seems that now we know why. According to reports, Amazon is working on the deployment of an Alexa AI, but it is too slow to respond to queries to be launched yet. The magazine Fortune has shared leaked internal documents highlighting some critical flaws of Alexa, the main one being latency: the AI takes too long to respond when given an instruction or asked a question. Apparently, this issue has led to low satisfaction among users. It seems that before the launch, Amazon wanted to achieve an average satisfaction score of 5.5 out of 7, but the test participants rated the AI service with only 4.57 points. For this reason, it appears that Amazon has missed its three planned launch dates for 2024, the most recent being November 14. Another cause for concern, which is not considered a critical issue like latency, but still remains, is that Alexa's AI may be incompatible with some older models, which could force many users to upgrade their technology to access the new AI. It is true that this is not a big surprise, given that in many phones only the latest models are receiving some AI improvements, but Amazon might fear that this will upset customers who have been waiting for this type of update for years. In any case, as with all leaks, these details should be taken with caution, as issues such as Alexa's AI latency could be much better now than when the note was written. Amazon wants its AI-enhanced Alexa to perform more tasks on its own, instead of delegating to a third-party app on the phone, as it does with some tasks. This way, you could ask the smart speaker to take you to the movies or reorder last week's takeout, and it could, using data from your linked accounts, perform those tasks for you without you having to do anything. It is an intriguing idea, but the success of this strategy will depend on whether users trust that artificial intelligence gets it completely right and that it doesn't accidentally place a food delivery order for something it hears on the television. Everything points to a launch in 2025, assuming it doesn't encounter more bumps along the way.

Alexa AI hasn't launched yet because it's too slow to respond to questions, insiders claim

Generative AI updates from Google and Apple have made their artificial assistants more useful in a number of ways - giving them new features, and generally making them easier to instruct - but one big name in the smart assistant world has been noticeably absent from the upgrade list: Alexa. Amazon is reportedly working on rolling out an Alexa AI, but it's just too slow to respond to queries to be launched yet. Fortune has shared leaked internal documents highlighting a few critical flaws with Alexa, with the big one apparently being latency - the AI takes way too long to respond when given an instruction or asked a question. This issue has reportedly led to low satisfaction scores from testers. Before launch Amazon reportedly wanted to achieve an average satisfaction score of 5.5 out of 7, but testers rated the AI service at just 4.57. This is why it appears Amazon has missed its three target launch dates in 2024 - the most recent being November 14. Another concern, not one not labeled a "critical issue" like latency but still a concern, is that the Alexa AI may be incompatible with some older models which could force a lot of users to upgrade their tech to access the new AI. Admittedly, this isn't a major surprise given that for many phones only the latest models are getting some AI improvements, but Amazon might fear it'll upset customers who have been wanting this kind of update for years only to miss out when their 'smart' assistant finally gets a brain. One thing that is noticeably absent from the leaked memo is any mention of Claude AI. Athropic's Claude is seen as one of the best ChatGPT alternatives but it lacks a voice mode; a partnership with Amazon when it was teased by leakers therefore made a lot of sense as it would give Amazon a leg up in the AI race and Anthropic assistance in teaching Claude to communicate with a voice. It could mean the Claude leak was false, or perhaps the partnership was decided on after this memo was published as a way to resolve the issue. Either way it highlights that as with all leaks these details should be taken with a pinch of salt; as such issues such as Alexa AI's latency could be in a much better state now than when the memo was written. Beyond Alexa AI delays, the leak also teases upgrades to Alexa services involving Amazon's partners like GrubHub, Ticketmaster and Uber (via Business Insider, behind a paywall). While these services already had Alexa skills Amazon wants to alter their relationship with the smart assistant. Specifically it wants its AI enhanced Alexa to perform more of the task itself, rather than handing things over to a third-party app on your phone as it does with some skills. So you could instruct the smart speaker to call you a ride to the movie theatre, or reorder that takeout you had last week and it could - using data from your linked accounts - perform those tasks for you without any manual input from you. It's certainly an intriguing idea, but this strategy's success will come down to whether users trust the AI to get their request completely right, and trust it not to accidentally reorder a takeout because of something it overhears from your TV. It's one thing for Alexa to play the wrong song, it's another thing entirely if it spends your money on the wrong thing. We'll have to wait and see what Alexa AI has in store for us when it eventually launches. All signs point to a 2025 release, that is assuming it doesn't face any more bumps in the road.