• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Amazon has brought its voice assistant to the web in a move intended to bypass the need for physical smart speakers, giving advertisers another option to work with Alexa+. 

This shift allows advertisers to influence shoppers through advanced AI-driven discovery and cross-device strategies.

While the announcement does not include new advertising formats, it does create strategic advantages for brands by expanding how these formats are accessed and used across voice, mobile and the web.

Chats and preferences are shared across all interfaces, giving advertisers the ability to influence a user's discovery process on a desktop and see it in a purchase via voice at home.

Several types of advertising units are available on Alexa+ through Amazon.com. The company describes them as "Echo Show Smart Displays," "Conversational Ads," "By The Way Voice Suggestions," and "Self-Promotional Ads."

"Alexa+ needs to be available wherever they are — at home, on their phone, and now on the web. Alexa.com brings the full power of Alexa+ right to your browser,” a post on Amazon’s website says.

Alexa+ provides more than information based on consumer queries. The AI assistant can take actions and complete tasks through AI-based agents such as managing to-do lists and updated family calendars, or making purchases and shipping items.

Amazon also said it will add modalities to the new interface.

Amazon.com is supported by Alexa+, with more capabilities and experiences planned in the future, the company announced.

Last year the company added agentic capabilities to Seller Assistant, its AI tool for third-party sellers. It allows the software to take action on a merchant’s behalf with their permission.

Seller Assistant goes beyond answering queries and is capable of coordinating inventory orders and business-growth plans, as well as implementing fixes for account issues, helping merchants to avoid costly mistakes.