Dive Brief:
- Amazon has launched Alexa.com, a dedicated website for its generative AI-powered Alexa+ assistant, for all early access customers, the company announced Monday.
- The site can help customers research topics, create content and plan meals, according to Amazon. It can also take action on a customer’s behalf by making reservations, controlling smart home devices and ordering groceries at Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, among other tasks.
- Alexa.com is connected to each customer’s at-home Alexa devices, and all chats, preferences and personalization options are shared between interfaces.
Dive Insight:
Alexa.com was designed to let customers access an AI-powered assistant wherever they are through whatever device they prefer.
Amazon launched Alexa+ launched in February and has expanded its capabilities over the ensuing months.
“We've integrated with tens of thousands of services and devices, scaled to tens of millions of customers, and have seen people transform the way they use their AI assistant: twice the conversations, three times the purchases, five times the recipe requests,” Amazon wrote in a blog post.
Alexa.com aims to offer convenience through a personalized navigation sidebar that features each customer’s most-used Alexa features. Users can use it to access recent AI chats and pick up where they left off, browse files they shared with Alexa and move between tasks without losing their place.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been bullish on AI’s impact on customer experience. He said he expects the technology to “reinvent virtually every customer experience” in an April letter to shareholders, and reiterated his bullish expectations for AI on a May earnings call.
This year, the company has expanded its agentic AI investments with the launch of the Rufus shopping assistant in February. In October, it launched Help Me Decide, an AI-powered shopping tool made to help customers choose between multiple similar items.
Amazon isn’t alone in its ambitions. Other retailers, including Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe’s have launched AI-powered shopping tools, while companies such as Sonos are exploring the role AI could play in home devices.
