• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 26, 2025

Amazon and Anthropic have worked together during the past year to help Alexa+ get the full benefits of Claude's capabilities.

The company introduce the updated version of its platform on Wednesday as Amazon's next-generation assistant powered by generative AI (GAI). It is more conversational, smarter, and personalized with support from Anthropic's Claude.

Alexa+ also can help to search for and find or buy items online, and make useful suggestions based on interests. It also can manage and protect the user's home, make reservations, and help track and discover new artists.

Some of the biggest advances made to Alexa+ powered by GAI were building the platform on a completely new architecture to connect to tens of thousands of services and devices.

Large language models (LLMs) can provide the ability to have conversations, but they don’t inherently support APIs, which are the core protocols to getting things done outside of a chat window and in the real world for customers.

Things like finding and booking an appointment or ordering groceries, Amazon said.

This new architecture will let customers connect with services like GrubHub, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Yelp, Thumbtack, Vagaro, Fodor’s, Tripadvisor, Amazon, Whole Foods Market, Uber, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, smart home devices from companies like Philips Hue and Roborock, and much more.

Technology was added that enables the LLMs to string together multiple API calls, so Alexa+ can do things like book a reservation but also send a text message to contact to let them know about the dinner plans.

Agentic capabilities were also added, that enable Alexa+ to navigate the digital world as a person would, finding information on a topic or items. Users can ask Alexa+ to do something, and it will navigate to websites and complete the tasks.

For companies that want to build out software that connects to Alexa+, Amazon rearchitected the skills category kits to incorporate GAI-powered experiences while maintaining the developer interfaces and implementations.

For customers, this means many of the services like using their favorite music provider or their smart home devices are available and enhanced on the platform. It made the platform more conversations. Customers can now speak more naturally, saying things like, “Alexa, who won best new artist last month?” to find and play their music, or say “Alexa, it's dark in here,” to brighten a room.

Amazon said it is collaborating with select companies to gather insights and refine its approach. During the coming months, Amazon will expand on its early access program that creates new opportunities for others to build innovative and impactful experiences.