Amazon Brings Generative AI-Powered Alexa+ to India for Hindi Beta Testing

Amazon is taking a major step in expanding its advanced AI capabilities globally, specifically in India. The tech giant has started inviting select customers in India to beta test Alexa+, its next-generation voice assistant enhanced with generative AI, with a particular focus on Hindi language support. This move highlights Amazon's strategic interest in the Indian market, aiming to provide a more natural and intelligent conversational experience to a vast user base. The current beta testing phase involves sending out invitations to a segment of Indian users, giving them the chance to experience the new Alexa+ and provide feedback. This feedback is critical for Amazon to improve the system's understanding of Hindi speech, local pronunciation nuances, and overall communication quality. The company has acknowledged that, as with any beta software, there might be bugs, occasional inaccuracies, or mispronunciations of local terms.

What is Alexa+? The Evolution of Amazon's AI Assistant

Alexa+ is more than just an incremental update to the existing Alexa. It's a significant overhaul, powered by generative AI, designed to transform the voice assistant from a command-and-control interface into a truly conversational and context-aware AI. Amazon first announced the Alexa+ project in 2025, with a mass rollout to all users in the U.S. beginning in February of this year (2026). Since then, it has expanded to countries like the UK, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and Germany, adapted to local contexts. The core idea behind Alexa+ is to enable more fluid and natural interactions. Instead of users needing to remember specific commands, they can speak to Alexa+ more like they would to another human. This means asking follow-up questions, having the assistant remember past interactions, and understanding half-formed thoughts or colloquial expressions. Amazon is using multiple large language models to achieve this level of conversational fluency and context awareness. Key features that define Alexa+ include:

• More Natural Conversations: The assistant can remember previous interactions, allowing for ongoing dialogues and task completion without needing to restart the context.
• Enhanced Personalization: Over time, Alexa+ learns user preferences, such as entertainment choices, dietary needs, or daily routines, to offer more tailored assistance.
• Agentic Capabilities: Alexa+ is designed to navigate the internet and complete tasks on a user's behalf. This includes making real-time reservations (e.g., Uber or OpenTable), creating lists, or even summarizing smart home camera recordings and answering specific questions about them.
• Voice-Controlled Routines: Users can now create custom routines using voice commands, a feature previously mostly confined to the Alexa app.
• Multi-room Audio Control: Simple commands can now move music across different rooms or control playback in specific areas of a home.
• Prime Video Integration: Users can jump to specific scenes in movies and shows on Prime Video using voice commands.

These capabilities mark a significant shift from the previous Alexa, which primarily responded to direct commands. The generative AI foundation allows Alexa+ to be smarter, more personalized, and more capable of complex tasks, learning and improving over time.

India: A Strategic Market for Voice AI

India holds immense strategic importance for Amazon's Alexa+ expansion. With over 600 million people speaking Hindi, the country presents a massive opportunity for voice-based AI. Amazon's goal is to not only master pure Hindi but also to understand and respond to "Hinglish," a common code-mixed daily speech style where Hindi and English are blended. This approach aims to allow users to communicate more naturally with the AI, reflecting the real-world linguistic habits of a large segment of the Indian population. Amazon first introduced its Alexa voice assistant to the Indian market in 2017 with English support. Hindi language support was added in 2019, a major step that enabled hundreds of thousands of Alexa customers to interact in Hindi or Hinglish, accessing content like music, Bollywood updates, sports scores, jokes, and more. This earlier localization effort involved equipping Alexa with a rich Hindi vocabulary and the ability to understand various regional accents and dialects, a challenge that Amazon's AI teams have actively worked on. The introduction of Alexa+ in India builds on this foundation, extending generative AI capabilities to a broader local language context. Panos Panay, Senior Vice President of Devices & Services at Amazon, emphasized the critical hurdle of language in India, focusing not just on translation but also on capturing nuance, dialect, and cultural behavior.

Pricing and Availability

For users in the US and some other regions where Alexa+ has rolled out, the service is currently free for Amazon Prime subscribers. Non-Prime members, however, are generally required to pay a monthly fee to access the updated and expanded capabilities of Alexa+. In the US, this fee has been reported as $19.99 per month. As for India, Amazon has not yet officially disclosed the specific pricing or a full launch date for Alexa+. The current phase is a beta test, and while the company is hoping for a launch by the end of the year, Panay noted that the product will be released when it is fully ready for the Indian market. The feedback gathered during this beta period will be crucial in shaping the final product and its rollout strategy for the region. New Echo smart speakers, such as the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio, launched in India in May 2026, are designed to support Alexa+ once the feature becomes available in the country. These devices feature Amazon's custom AZ3 silicon chips, which improve Alexa wake-word detection and conversation recognition, preparing them for the advanced AI capabilities of Alexa+. This beta testing of Alexa+ with Hindi support underscores Amazon's commitment to making its AI assistant deeply integrated into the daily lives of Indian consumers, leveraging the power of generative AI to offer a more intuitive and helpful experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Alexa+?

Alexa+ is Amazon's next-generation voice assistant, powered by generative AI. It offers more natural and conversational interactions, remembers past discussions, personalizes experiences, and can perform complex tasks beyond simple commands.

Why is Amazon testing Alexa+ in India with Hindi support?

India is a key strategic market for Amazon, with over 600 million Hindi speakers. By testing Hindi support, Amazon aims to cater to this vast user base and understand the nuances of local language, including "Hinglish," to provide a more natural and relevant AI experience.

When will Alexa+ be fully available in India?

Amazon has not yet announced an official launch date for Alexa+ in India. The company is currently conducting beta testing with select users to gather feedback and refine the Hindi-supported version.

Is Alexa+ free to use?

In regions where Alexa+ has already launched, it is typically free for Amazon Prime members. Non-Prime members generally need to pay a monthly subscription fee, which is $19.99 per month in the US. India-specific pricing has not yet been disclosed.