Alexa+ is now available in Spain: “smarter, more conversational and more personalized”

Amazon announced this Thursday the Availability in Spain of Alexa+ and promises a new experience for users, who will be able to interact with “a personal assistant with artificial intelligence”, in a new version of this service that is “smarter, more conversational and more personalized” than the previous one, as explained Andrés Pazos, Country Manager of Alexa in Spain.

At an event held in Madrid, the company’s directors pointed out that Alexa has been integrated into the daily life of Spanish homes and they hope that with Alexa+ your experience of a qualitative leap, mainly due to that ability to converse and adapt to the tastes and needs of each useras well as “taking action in the real world”, by integrating ‘partners’ such as The Fork, Cabify or Fever, which will allow you to book a restaurant or request a taxi by simply asking Alexa+ by voice in a natural way, among other actions.

“The new Alexa experience is not just another chatbot or a large language model (LLM) but a orchestrator that uses more than 70 models to answer any question and perform actions in the real world,” explained Michele Butti, VP Alexa International, who traveled to Madrid from Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle (United States), to participate in this launch.

In the United States, Alexa+ was launched in ‘early access’ mode more than a year ago and last February it was included for free for all Prime users. That is the roadmap that is also expected in Spain, addressing first of all those ‘early access’ requests of users gradually and including later (without a confirmed date, at the moment) in the Prime subscription at no additional cost. Those who want to access Alexa+ without being Amazon Prime members will have to pay 22.99 euros per month.

THE BRAIN OF ALEXA+ IS IN ARAGON

Ruth Díaz, general director of Amazon in Spain, also participated in this launch event with the specialized press, and recalled that “Alexa+’s brain is in Aragon”, where the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Europe Region is located, for which the company has announced (last March) a total investment of 33.7 billion euros with the aim of Expand your data center infrastructure.

On the other hand, Díaz has pointed out that Alexa+ is not a simple translation of an experience designed in the United States, but that teams of engineers, designers, computational linguists and product experts – many of them based in Spain – have worked for years to create “an experience that is authentically local.”

In this sense, Amazon explains that, for example, the word “okay” in Spanish can mean “okay”, “I understand”, “perfect”, or simply be a filler to continue the conversation. “That cultural nuance is what makes technology feel like part of your life. Or when you say “come on” – which can be a farewell, an encouragement, or a way of saying “let’s go” – Alexa+ understands the context“, they add, emphasizing that, thanks to generative artificial intelligence, “Alexa+ you can learn new languages ​​more quickly and naturally“.

Many of these tasks that this Amazon generative AI executes do from the cloudalthough some can be developed ‘on device’ (without the need to send information outside the device) and use one model or another depending on what the user needs at any given time. “Architecture is model agnostic, meaning it can adapt to new innovations and use the most effective model for each task“adds Michele Butti.

“PRIVACY IS AT THE CENTER” OF ALEXA+ DESIGN

Regarding the doubts surrounding the privacy of user data, the Alexa Country Manager in Spain states that “the design of Alexa+ is made with the privacy in the center“and that the Users have “all control” through a panel in the app to “see all the information that has been shared and delete what you want”, something that can also be done directly by voice.

“We have designed Alexa+ as we do with any product: thinking about the user to protect their privacy and security, give them transparency and give them control over their data,” reiterates Pazos. For example, the Alexa Privacy panel Allows you to review and manage interactions with Alexa+ in one place. “Can hear exactly what Alexa heardreview the files you have shared, change how long your voice recordings are savedand much more,” he adds.

Alexa+ Early Access launches this Thursday in Spain. For immediate access, users can buy a compatible Echo device or, if you already have a compatible device, register at www.amazon.es/nuevalexa and wait for Amazon to send an invitation to join the program. “We are going to invite hundreds of thousands of customers in the coming weeks,” they said.

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