7 useful AI features coming with Alexa Plus (and which Echo devices will support it)

Amazon’s early-year Devices and Services event is underway, and the company is making it clear that AI will continue to be at the center of its hardware universe. Driving the buzzword of the century is Alexa, arguably the most popular virtual assistant in the world. SVP of Devices and Services Panos Panay suggested that millions of new customers use it every day during the event.

Also: Everything Amazon announced at its Devices and Services event today

And that’s likely true: Alexa is at the core of Amazon’s most prominent hardware products, including Echo speakers and Fire TVs. Today, the company showcased what’s next for its virtual assistant, now named Alexa+, as it looks to compete with the likes of Google, OpenAI, and others. The new Alexa will be “something that understands you, that can actually take action,” Panay teased, and it will work with tens of thousands of services from Amazon partners.

Here’s a rundown of the best new features coming with Alexa+ and how much it will cost.

1. Multimodal, agentic interactions

Powered by LLMs, Alexa+ can now process visual information via your device’s cameras to understand and answer questions. In one instance, Alexa was asked to describe the crowd’s excitement and enthusiasm at the event by leveraging the Echo Show 15’s front-facing camera. While its responses were two to three sentences long, they were descriptive and dictated in a fairly approachable tone.

The agentic capabilities of Alexa+ extend to browsing, with the ability to navigate the internet via Alexa.com and complete tasks for you on Amazon-partnered websites. For example, Alexa was asked to book a professional repairman for a damaged appliance. It then searched for a nearby repair service and booked an appointment via Thumbtack.

Also: 16 incredibly useful things Alexa can do on Amazon Echo

In another demo, a presenter worked with Alexa to build out a shopping list, suggesting items to add or remove throughout the conversation. Surprisingly, the feature supported shopping partners beyond Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh.

As Alexa responds, a flowing blue animation appears on the bottom of the device screen. This new change reflects Amazon’s more expressive UI.

2. Conversational chain of commands

Besides responding more naturally, with sprinkles of humor, another big unveiling showed how Alexa can now fulfill tasks throughout your daily apps and services, including your calendar and emails. It can book a dinner for you and send invitations for that to your closest contacts, too. We’ve seen similar agentic capabilities with Google’s Gemini.

Also: Ring just made outdoor security more affordable with its new $100 2K camera

In a demo, the virtual assistant was asked to recommend local pizzerias, to which it pulled top-rated storefronts via Yelp. Another example included asking Alexa to remember things, such as “Mary likes Greek and Indian food and is vegetarian but doesn’t like peanut butter.” It did just that without a question.

3. Refreshed home screen on Echo Show

Amazon also unveiled a series of new widgets alongside its refreshed Echo Show home screen, including ones that surface recipes, recent apps, weather, shopping lists, and connected smart home devices.

Also: 5 Amazon Alexa privacy settings you should change right away

The adaptive display leverages the larger screen real estate to display relevant information depending on whether you’re far away from the device or closer to it. For example, the Echo Show will display photos and personalized content from afar and switch to a more detailed layout when you approach it.

4. Conducting music with voice

For a music demo, Panay asked Alexa, “What’s the song Bradley Cooper sings… it’s like in a duet?” to which it answered, “Shallow with Lady Gaga from the movie *A Star Is Born*.” More impressively, you can now dictate where music is playing from if you have multiple Alexa-enabled speakers in your house.

Also: The best Alexa devices of 2025: Expert tested and recommended

For example, you can ask Alexa to play music on the left or right, with the assumption that speakers are mounted in designated areas. We’ll have to see exactly how reliable this is in real-world tests. And for Amazon’s last trick, Panay asked Alexa to skip to the scene in the movie when “Shallow” is sung, and it did — on the second try.

5. Improved Ring integration

Alexa now supports AI-powered video search, allowing it to process recordings by Ring cameras to answer questions. In a live demo, Panay asked the assistant whether anyone had taken out the dog yesterday or the day before, to which it sifted through past video libraries to determine the answer.

6. Dense document processing

“You can now share just about anything with Alexa,” said Mara Segal, Director of Alexa. That includes dense legal documents, handwritten notes, school schedules, PDFs, and more, from which the assistant can process the content and answer related questions.

Also: How I feed my files to a local AI for better, more relevant responses

In another example, a school schedule was uploaded, and Alexa was asked to add dates for soccer practices to the calendar and suggest snacks that could be brought to them.

7. Explore and Stories with Alexa

Amazon’s focus on kids-centric services extends to Alexa+, which now includes the Explore and Stories features. In a demo, the assistant was asked to create a story about funny animals. It followed up with a story about “Benny the Bearded Dragon,” accompanied by a series of AI-generated artwork.

How much does Alexa Plus cost?

The upgraded Alexa service will cost $19.99 a month or be free if you’re an Amazon Prime member. It will officially roll out over the next few weeks and “subsequently in waves in the coming months,” according to Amazon.

Also: The best Alexa smart speaker I’ve tested isn’t an Echo

What Amazon Echo devices will support Alexa Plus?

Amazon says that the new service will come to almost all Echo devices, including the Show 8, 10, 15, and 21. You can expect the capabilities to be supported by the latest models, as well as ones from recent years. Stay tuned for the official compatibility list, including whether or not this applies to the Echo, Echo Spot, and Echo Pop as well. We’ve reached out to Amazon for a response.