The biggest surprise at Amazon’s press conference last week was the lack of hardware announcements. Traditionally, Amazon announces dozens of new gadgets at its events, but this time, Amazon spent 70 minutes talking about software. Specifically, Alexa Plus, its new generative AI-powered Alexa voice assistant. And that was exactly the right move.

Alexa Plus will start rolling out next month in early access. It's an opt-in service and won't be available to everyone through an over-the-air update in March.

Amazon has announced Alexa Plus, an AI-powered upgrade that promises a smarter, more conversational, and proactive voice assistant.