Amazon has launched Alexa+ in India, bringing its generative AI-powered voice assistant to the country with support for English, Hindi and Hinglish, alongside more conversational interactions and the ability to perform tasks across connected services.
Alexa+ is available in India under an Early Access programme from September 16. During this period, eligible customers can use the service for free across supported Echo devices, Fire TV products and the Alexa mobile app. After Early Access, Amazon plans to include Alexa+ with Prime membership, while Prime Lite, Prime Shopping Edition and non-Prime customers will be charged ₹2,000 per month.
The upgraded assistant is designed to maintain context across longer conversations and allow users to switch between Hindi and English within the same sentence. Amazon has also adapted the system to understand Indian expressions, cultural references and commonly used terms, including measurements and family relationships.
Amazon said teams in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai contributed to the technology behind Alexa+, including speech recognition and language models designed to handle code-mixed Hinglish and Indian language patterns.
Beyond answering questions, Alexa+ can perform multi-step tasks. Users can control compatible smart home devices, manage schedules, discover music, plan meals and receive shopping assistance. It can also order groceries through Amazon Now.
The company is integrating the assistant with Indian and international services including Swiggy, District by Zomato, MakeMyTrip, TripAdvisor and EazyDiner, as well as music platforms Amazon Music and JioSaavn. Some of these capabilities are expected to become available progressively.
Amazon said customers in India interacted with Alexa more than nine billion times over the past 12 months. The company did not disclose its active Alexa user base in the country, but said usage of its smart home devices has increased by 20% from the previous year.
The India rollout follows Amazon's introduction of Alexa+ in the US and its expansion into markets including the UK, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Germany. Amazon originally introduced Alexa in India in English in 2017 and added Hindi support in 2019.
With Alexa+, the company is expanding the assistant from primarily handling individual voice commands towards longer conversations and task execution. The India launch also places greater emphasis on multilingual interactions as Amazon adapts its generative AI assistant for local usage patterns.
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