Amazon is accelerating Alexa's position in the generative AI competition. On Monday, Amazon officially launched the web portal Alexa.com for Alexa +, allowing some users to directly interact with this new generation of smart assistant through a browser. This move is seen as a key upgrade in Amazon's interaction model and indicates that its competition with ChatGPT from OpenAI is becoming more direct.

According to AIbase, Alexa.com is currently only available to Alexa + users. Alexa + is Amazon's new generation AI assistant, launched in February of last year, and is still in an early trial phase. Users need to join a waiting list or purchase newer Amazon-related devices to gain access. Amazon stated that over a million users can currently access Alexa +, but it is still gradually expanding.

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In terms of functionality, Amazon has set a clear positioning for the web version of Alexa. Through Alexa.com, users can quickly get information, discuss complex issues in depth, create content, plan travel itineraries, and assist with homework. At the same time, Alexa + also supports managing smart home devices directly within the chat window, continuing its core advantage in home scenarios.

Amazon emphasized that the purpose of launching the web version is to expand the usage scenarios of Alexa +, ensuring that users can interact with this AI assistant through different terminals. Previously, Alexa + mainly relied on mobile applications and some Echo smart speaker devices, with relatively limited access points.

The launch of Alexa.com has made Amazon's product form closer to the current mainstream AI chatbot usage methods. Several manufacturers, including OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Perplexity, have already supported accessing their AI services directly through web browsers. In comparison, Amazon was clearly lagging in "pure web interaction" previously.

Under the wave of generative AI, the rapid popularity of products like ChatGPT and Google Gemini is reshaping user expectations of smart assistants. For Amazon, this change is both a pressure and a key driver to accelerate the upgrading of its software and hardware ecosystem. In fact, when Amazon launched Alexa + last year, it had already announced that Alexa.com would be launched within a few months; in July of the same year, the company confirmed in an interview with The Washington Post that this feature was planned to be available to early experience users in the summer.

With the official launch of the web version of Alexa +, Amazon is filling a key gap between itself and mainstream generative AI products. In the future, whether Alexa can compete face-to-face with products like ChatGPT in terms of content understanding and generation capabilities will be an important indicator of the success of its AI strategy.