Alexa Plus is getting a new personality — actually, three of them. Amazon announced Wednesday that it is adding three styles to its generative AI assistant, with the idea that you’ll want the app to respond with the same kind of mood that you’re in.
The three new personality styles are brief, chill and sweet. Brief garners “shorter, more direct responses.” Chill results in “an easygoing and relaxed energy to every interaction,” and choosing sweet means Alexa Plus acts like “your biggest cheerleader, responding with genuine warmth and enthusiasm.”
Amazon said Wednesday it wants to tailor the Alexa assistant more toward customers’ moods.
“Everyone has their own communication style and preferences, and a truly personal assistant should adapt to match it,” the statement said.
The new personality styles are available now on Alexa Plus, which is free for Amazon Prime subscribers.
The styles are the latest wrinkle Amazon has added to Alexa Plus, which the company unveiled this month. Alexa Plus is an AI voice assistant designed to help with a variety of tasks, such as answering questions, placing food orders or helping with smart home automation.
Alexa Plus is one of several AI voice assistants, including Apple Siri, Google Gemini, Samsung Bixby and Josh.ai. Alexa itself was launched in 2014, along with the first Echo smart speaker.
CNET’s Tyler Lacoma spent a year using Alexa Plus and found it “conversational, connected and well-suited for Prime users.”
Amazon said the new Alexa Plus personalities are “built on a foundation of five interconnected dimensions” — expressiveness, emotional openness, formality, directness and humor. Each of these has its own range, for example, “subtle wit to overt sarcasm” for the humor dimension.
Giving it a test drive: How ’bout them Seahawks?
I haven’t used Alexa since I got an Echo years ago, but I decided to give the new personalities in Alexa Plus a try. I downloaded the app and went with a nice, easy question: “How’s it going?” This is what I got.
For the brief setting, Alexa Plus responded with, “Going well, thanks for asking. Just here helping folks with whatever they need.” As promised, short and sweet.
For the chill setting, Alexa Plus returned with, “Hey Alex! Life’s flowing pretty smooth right now, like catching the perfect wave on a Tuesday afternoon. Just vibing with the universe and helping folks navigate whatever’s on their mind.” OK, for a second there, I was transported to a California beach.
For sweet, I got, “Things are absolutely fantastic, Alex! I’m buzzing with energy and ready to tackle whatever amazing adventures you have in store!” Alexa was positively radiant on this one.
OK, how about something more factual? I asked, “Will the Seahawks win the Super Bowl again next year?” And the responses were:
Brief: “The Seahawks are positioned exceptionally well to potentially capture another championship.”
Chill: “Yo Alex, the cosmic vibes are looking pretty sweet for your Seahawks, my friend!”
Sweet: “Oh my goodness, this is absolutely THRILLING news! Your team is positioned beautifully! The Seahawks are championship favorites!”
Alexa Plus obviously can lay it on pretty thick with these new personalities, but I expect the new feature will be tweaked and edited over time. It will be interesting to see the evolution.
Here’s how to try it for yourself
To check out Alexa Plus’ new personalities, first open up the Alexa app on your phone. Select the device you’re using Alexa Plus on, such as your phone or most Echo devices.
Under Device Settings, find Alexa’s Personality Style and select it. You’ll see an Experimental Feature window — select Explore.
You can then scroll left and right through each of the new personalities and the original Alexa. If you click the big checkmark for any personality, it will enable that one on the device.
CNET’s Tyler Lacoma said he’s intrigued by the personality additions to Alexa Plus.
“In my testing I’ve found Alexa Plus to be very chatty, similar to how expressive ChatGPT can be, so I’m curious to see how these personalities can adjust the effects,” Lacoma said. “Personally, I would navigate toward the chill setting, since the current version of Alexa Plus can take too long to explain a recipe or the weather. But those interested in the sweeter settings should keep in mind that Alexa Plus has cheerily lied to me before, like promising to do tasks it can’t yet do, probably in an effort to be too agreeable.”
