According to Bloomberg, Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, originally planned a significant artificial intelligence overhaul by the end of this year, but it now appears to be postponed until 2025. This upgrade aims to make Alexa smarter and more powerful, with enhanced conversational abilities and improved capacity to handle new information.
The report also details the issues encountered by the AI-enhanced version of Alexa during testing. For instance, beta users reported that the AI might provide lengthy and cluttered responses that are not entirely relevant to the original query. Other issues include hallucinations, and notably, inconsistent performance with connected smart devices like light switches.
Currently, Amazon has not officially confirmed any delays, but beta access has been closed. Users are unable to try the more conversational version of Alexa in the test environment. It now seems that users may need to wait until 2025 to use the upgraded version of Alexa.
The delay in Amazon's Alexa AI upgrade plan could impact the company's competitiveness in the voice assistant market. While the company continues to work on improving Alexa's capabilities, the delay could disappoint users.
