Amazon offered a little more insight into how it sees its AI platform competing in the real world at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. In particular, Amazon plans to capitalize on the extensive footprint its devices already have in the home as well as existing consumer familiarity with the Alexa brand.
“Ninety-seven percent of the devices we’ve ever shipped can support Alexa+,” noted Amazon Alexa and Echo VP Daniel Rouse in an interview at CES. He said the latest figures available to Amazon show the company has sold more than 600 million devices, and the “vast majority” will support its revamped AI assistant, Alexa+.
Announced early last year, Alexa+ is Amazon’s future in the AI market, offering more expressive voices, access to global knowledge similar to other AI assistants, and AI agents that perform tasks on the customer’s behalf, such as calling an Uber or ordering food. The company has been steadily rolling out access to its AI platform, with more than 1 million Alexa customers gaining access last June, and now, “tens of millions” can choose to upgrade to the AI assistant.
Amazon doesn’t have an exact date for when Alexa+ will be available to everyone. the company is focusing first on bringing AI to all Prime members.
What Amazon will soon have to prove, beyond availability, is whether customers will actually use its AI. That’s where Rausch thinks Alexa’s existing footprint will help.
“I think there’s going to be a whole range of AI out there for customers. I think Alexa is going to be one of the key assistants,” he said. While he believes there will always be some niche AIs on the market, such as those that focus on one thing, like being a legal assistant, there will be some “branded, foundational AIs that are extremely capable,” which is where Alexa comes in.
“I think some of the advantages that Alexa has is customer familiarity, the tens of millions of customers that are already engaged all the time,” Rausch said. “It’s in the home, available in the environment, in the voice, in the most natural interface. I think that’s our opportunity to grow,” he added.
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Alexa’s plans for the home come as Apple announced it is partnering with Google’s Gemini for Siri, as other AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Claude compete in a variety of use cases ranging from research to healthcare to coding and more.
Just before CES, Amazon announced a way to access Alexa on the web and a redesigned Alexa app that puts a chatbot-like interface front and center. At the conference, Amazon partners like it Samsung, BMW and Oura showed off their Alexa integrations.
The company also promoted its recent acquisition of Bee, a wearable artificial intelligence device that lets you record conversations and gain insights. Customers can interact with Bee via text chat or voice chat.
In the future, Rausch says Alexa and Bee will become more integrated. But, he added, Bee has value as its own standalone brand, calling it “an important and endearing experience.”
