By Annie Palmer

Copyright cnbc

Amazon typically hosts an annual devices bonanza each fall, where it unveils a bevy of new hardware and software products.

The company eschewed the tradition in 2024 and instead hosted an event last February where it announced a long-awaited overhaul of its Alexa digital assistant.

Since then, Amazon has slowly rolled out early access to Alexa+. It’s not yet available to the general public and users must have newer versions of Amazon’s Echo Show, its voice-controlled display with a touch screen.

The company says more than a million users have been granted access to Alexa+.

In a first for Amazon, the company is charging users to access its digital assistant, which it says is more conversational and proactive compared with previous versions. The service costs $19.99 a month, but is free for members of its $139-a-year Prime program.

Alexa has grown to be a sizable business for Amazon, with more than 600 million Alexa devices sold worldwide. That figure includes third-party products, as well as Amazon-branded devices.

Amazon faces growing pressure to update its hardware and software for the generative AI age following the success of rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. Meta also has its Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which use its Llama large language model to answer spoken questions from the user.

Amazon’s AI device ambitions may not end with Alexa or Echo smart speakers.

The company in July confirmed it’s acquiring AI wearables startup Bee, which makes a wristband that can record and transcribe conversations.

Amazon has also introduced generative AI in some of its Ring smart home security products.

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