Amazon Launches Alexa+ Early Access Trial in UK
Amazon unveiled Alexa+, its next-generation generative AI voice assistant, on February 26, 2025. The service is designed for natural, multi-turn conversations, task execution and smart-home control. With 56 million smart-home devices connected to Alexa, the UK was selected as its first European market and a key testing ground for Amazon’s paid AI services.
Amazon launched the Alexa+ early access trial in the UK on March 19, 2026, with hundreds of thousands of customers set to receive invitations over the coming weeks. The service will be free during the trial, after which it will cost £19.99 a month, with no additional charge for Prime members. A team at Amazon’s Cambridge technology center also tuned the model for British accents, regional expressions and slang, and added support for more than 1,000 local radio stations.
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The history behind this eventAmazon Upgrades Alexa+ for Complex Smart-Home Commands
Amazon began rolling out Alexa+ in early access in March 2025 and opened the generative-AI assistant to all U.S. users in February 2026. Built on models from Amazon Nova and Anthropic, the overhaul is designed to move Alexa beyond rigid commands toward natural-language conversations, multi-step tasks and voice-created routines. Unlimited access is included with Prime, priced at $14.99 a month or $139 a year in the U.S.; non-Prime users can pay $19.99 a month. Deeper smart-home control is central to Amazon’s effort to make the assistant more useful and drive engagement across its installed base of connected devices.
On July 23, 2026, Amazon unveiled preview integrations built with a new AI-powered smart-home developer toolkit. Initial partners include Bosch, Delta, Ecovacs, iRobot, Whirlpool, Yale Home, Tapo and Eufy. Rather than naming a device or mode, users can describe the outcome they want; Alexa+ will route the request and choose the relevant feature. In Amazon’s washer example, it selected a cold-water enzyme cycle, extra rinse and low spin from 30 options. The company said Alexa+ adopters increase smart-home engagement by nearly 50% in their first month and create twice as many Routines.
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