Amazon was the company that put a voice assistant in 200 million American homes. It was also the company that watched ChatGPT eat its lunch.
In February 2025, Amazon announced Alexa+, a generative AI upgrade that promised to turn the basic Echo into a real assistant, one that could book reservations, manage family calendars, summarize Ring camera footage, and have actual conversations. It rolled out to all U.S. Prime members in February 2026.
The rollout has been bumpy. Amazon replaced the familiar Alexa voice with a new upbeat version. Reviews from Consumer Reports and other testers called Alexa+ a genuine improvement, especially for controlling a smart home, but noted regular glitches, and a tendency to be too chatty.
Alexa+ is technically the furthest along of the three top assistants. But the user response so far is mixed. It is better than old Alexa, and still not as smart as your phone's chatbot.