Amazon Launches New Chatbot-Style Interface for Alexa

In brief Amazon announced Alexa.com on Monday, bringing its Alexa+ assistant to a browser-based, chat-style interface. The early access product lets users manage tasks, upload documents, and view Ring camera feeds from the web. Alexa.com offers text and image generators in a bid to expand its foothold in the generative AI market dominated by Google and OpenAI. Decrypt’s Art, Fashion, and Entertainment Hub. Discover SCENE Amazon on Monday announced the launch of Alexa.com, a new browser-based interface that lets users interact with its Alexa+ AI assistant through a chatbot-style experience on the web. The move extends Alexa beyond smart speakers and mobile devices, placing it alongside other generative AI chatbots, including Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. More and more agentic AI chatbots offer shopping and task management, though Alexa+ is attempting to differentiate itself from rivals by allowing users access to smart-home controls through their browser.  While the company has not described Alexa as an “AI agent,” the expanded capabilities come as Amazon has moved to restrict third-party tools that perform automated actions on its platform, including serving Perplexity with a cease-and-desist letter over its Comet browser in November. Last year, Amazon first began rolling out Alexa+ through a limited preview in the U.S. As part of the upgrade, the company partnered with Anthropic, the developer of Claude, to help power the generative AI–driven version of Alexa. “Alexa+ has evolved rapidly since it launched nine months ago,” Amazon said in a statement. “We’ve integrated with tens of thousands of services and devices, scaled to tens of millions of customers, and have seen people transform the way they use their AI assistant: twice the conversations, three times the purchases, five times the recipe requests. What we’ve learned is simple: customers want Alexa wherever they are.” Amazon has said the company uses a “model-agnostic” approach rather than relying on a single large language model. While the new interface offers a new way to interact with Alexa, Amazon said the web-based expansion did not change its approach to user privacy. “We design Alexa+ the same way we approach building any product—we aim to create something customers will love while also protecting their privacy and security,” an Amazon spokesperson told Decrypt . “Customers can review their interactions, including shared attachments, voice recordings, and web activity, and use the Alexa Privacy dashboard to control their most important privacy settings.” Alongside those upgrades, Alexa.com enabled the assistant to generate images from user prompts, manage reminders and household notifications, and assist with shopping by reviewing, updating, and completing purchases through conversational commands. Users can also shop and manage their Amazon shopping carts, including Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods orders, upload documents, set reminders, book reservations, and control connected devices such as Ring cameras, lighting, and thermostats from a single browser window. The interface supports typed or spoken interaction and carries context across Echo devices, the Alexa app, and desktop browsers. Access to Alexa.com remains limited to Alexa+ Early Access users, and Amazon did not provide a timeline for a broader public release. Generally Intelligent Newsletter A weekly AI journey narrated by Gen, a generative AI model. Your Email Get it! Get it!