Amazon Launches New Echo Hardware with Alexa Plus AI Upgrade

This week Amazon unveils a new Echo hardware solution that aims to substantially boost Alexa Plus – an AI-powered update promising to make the voice assistant wiser. I’m participating in the early access program and, despite the promising signs, I can see that this is still a work in progress.

The new system acts as a hybrid of smart home, personal assistant, and the company’s response to ChatGPT. In the beta version, Alexa Plus does not yet embody all these roles as well as promised.

In the smart-home interface, there are notable advances: controlling lights, locks, and a robot vacuum using natural language without rigid phrasing, reducing the need to repeat “Alexa,” and the ability to interrupt the conversation. However, the idea of a ‘Computer’ in Star Trek style remains out of reach.

The problem is that the system runs on hardware that seems underpowered, and the integrations are superficial. There is power under the hood, but users feel the limitations and need more reliable and capable hardware.

“Turn on the bathroom fan for 15 minutes.”

The Architecture Paradox and Paths Forward

Generative AI could be a tipping point for the smart home: it will free users from complex settings, make interacting with the home more natural, and reduce the number of contextual commands. In many aspects, Alexa Plus is already moving in this direction: users can quickly create routines and automation with voice prompts.

But the reality remains more complicated: responses sometimes lag up to 15 seconds; controlling lighting or a thermostat looks fast, but the weather forecast or playing a song can be unnaturally slow due to a combination of local connections and limited APIs via Matter.

The company assures that the main emphasis is predictability: avoiding hallucinations in the smart home and maintaining control over the system’s behavior. Such efforts sound encouraging, but they have not yet delivered the full breakthrough that users expected.

As for the hardware, Show devices – Show 21 and Show 15 – remain the primary interfaces. At the same time, the interaction between voice and visuals requires better synchronization. The company promises “good” new devices, but the key is how they will work together with the software.

“good” new hardware

Bottom line: Alexa Plus has not yet been a significant step forward for the smart home, but it already makes control easier. The main question remains whether it will be possible to combine high computational power with reliability and cohesion between hardware and software – this is what we should keep watching.

The company promises further updates that will make Alexa Plus more responsive and useful for everyday use – faster responses, deeper integration with devices, and more natural dialogue.

For now, users can expect Alexa Plus to offer a smoother experience and better interaction between voice, display, and touch elements, but a full transformation of the smart home is still ahead.