Amazon is not giving up on making its Alexa a virtual shopping assistant. On Wednesday, the company announced that Alexa+, its revamped Alexa experience, will be able to help consumers grocery shop from home using more natural conversations and requests.
The feature will work with Amazon Fresh or any other grocery partner working with Amazon, the retailer noted. Food delivery from partners like Uber Eats is also available.
Instead of simply listing out ingredients you need by voice, Amazon showed how you could also chat with Alexa as she helps you build your shopping list.
For example, the company demoed asking Alexa to get “everything we need for banana bread,” except the spices, and said they also wanted to cook that “Bob’s Red Mill pancake mix.” Oh, and they needed syrup and a few more eggs, too.
Alexa understood these natural language requests and turned them into grocery list items.
Plus, Alexa was able to adjust quantities on the fly when asked to “make it two and a half gallons instead of a gallon” of milk, for instance.
The assistant was also able to make recommendations of what to cook for a five-year-old dinner guest by suggesting some pasta options that kids tended to like.
The company described this type of shopping as using your voice to shop in a sort of “stream of consciousness”-style chat.
The upgraded Alexa+ experience will ship in March as an upgrade to existing Alexa devices. The service will be $19.99 per month but is free for all Prime members.
