Amazon’s much-hyped launch of updated Alexa delayed due to ‘technical difficulties’

Amazon is now said to be postponing the launch of the much-anticipated, and most awaited, AI-enabled version of Alexa; another delay to watch from a virtual assistant’s rollout. The product will still be seen by the public on February 26, but as was revealed by Washington Post, its launch for the general audience has been moved at least to March 31.

The internal memo and anonymous employee have reported that the cause for the extended deadline was technical issues with the new Alexa giving incorrect answers while testing. The assistant is going to be far more intelligent and conversational than before with its AI-driven capabilities for supporting the emergence of technologies like ChatGPT by OpenAI. Yet, Amazon has got trouble in consolidating the advanced AI in the existing Alexa ecosystem where the viability guarantee is ensured.

An Amazon spokesperson would not provide comment on specifics related to the delay, citing only that the company anticipates updates from the Alexa team on February 26. Yet these internal setbacks tell the story of growing pains for high-tech companies in their consumer products of incorporating AI, albeit massively investing in the related technologies.

What affects one tech giant company also becomes a problem for another. For instance, Apple recently yanked an AI feature for its iPhone, which gave horribly inaccurate news summaries. There’s no doubt now how difficult it is to come up with a successful AI-powered feature. Further delaying the much-hyped AI-based improvement in Siri is another struggle for Apple in bringing a consumer product AI into the mainstream.

The *Washington Post* reportage has concluded that generative AI’s run cost may have shrunk, but it is still very costly, particularly for its mass deployment. Financial viability of AI-powered products like Alexa continues to cause concern. “An upgraded Alexa that would either require a subscription model or deduct from its eCommerce sales was one consideration the previous Amazon employee revealed, although it seems mostly about technical problem relief,” he said.

Simply coupling Alexa with a large language model like those employed in ChatGPT will not suffice to enhance the virtual assistant’s capabilities, according to analysts. “Agentic AI” requires a lot more structure and up-front assistance than someone would be willing to provide for a very simple form of conversation, as Mike Finley, CTO and co-founder of AnswerRocket, said about this complicating creating a truly smarter virtual assistant.

It remains to be seen if a postponed delivery will meet the public demands for improved and reliable virtual assistants as Amazon continues improving AI functionality in Alexa.