Enough chit-chat: Alexa is done waiting for the agentic AI future I spoke to Amazon's Daniel Rausch to find out more

Date:
Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:10:00 +0000

Description:
Tech is finally catching up with the mission of Amazon's ubiquitous assistant.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter After years of pronouncements that agentic AI was just around the corner, it suddenly crawled into view this year in the form of OpenClaw, a lightweight, flexible means of orchestrating agents.

And I spoke to Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Echo at Amazon , to find out how the Alexa team is taking advantage of state-of-the-art models with Alexa+. OpenClaw gives AI digital hands that can interact with your PC, the web, and other agents, the same digital tools that human workers would use. Particularly if you spring for a well-equipped Mac mini (the go-to box
as macOS is OpenClaws original platform) or a PC with a powerful GPU, the local option can save money in the long run. Article continues below You may like Alexa+ promises an AI layer over everything Im not sure we asked for that Amazon sees its original smart assistant vision realised in Alexa+
Forget wearable AI the future of AI is contextual

But if youre not careful about permissions and security, configurations can expose passwords and other highly sensitive data. OpenClaw has already
spurred enhancements (like Nvidia s Nemobot) and rivals (like Perplexity Computer and Claude Cowork Dispatch). These can cost $100 per month or more, and may be well worth it for someone seeking to automate much of a solo business or side hustle. Yesterdays friendliness, tomorrows foundation But
for mainstream consumers, their best option for using AI to just get stuff done may come via one of the most familiar names in digital assistants.

Rausch explains that Alexa has always been focused on getting things done for customers in the real world. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

"There are things we've believed to be true about what we're going for with Alexa. And we definitely believe that being the world's best personal AI assistant is a worthy thing to be building for customers and that we can get
a lot of magical things done. The vision for Alexa has been very consistent over time, but the technology has held us back at times from becoming the ultimate assistant."

Now, after an 18-month gestation that rebuilt Alexas architecture from the ground up while maintaining compatibility with 97 percent of the hundreds of millions of devices on which it runs, users are engaging with Alexa Plus two to three times more than they did with the original assistant. In an even
more encouraging sign, the engagement level continues to grow over time.

For example, Amazon has seen week-over-week interactions growth in such usage staples as listening to music streams as generative AI takes discovery deep into genres. Smart home interactions--one of the few ways first-gen
assistants were able to interact with the real world - are up more than 50 percent versus classic Alexa. Rausch attributes this to Alexa+s greater understanding of intent. What to read next Alexa+ launches to take on ChatGPT ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude predict AI's future Why 2026 is the year AI finally understands the work behind the work

You can truly say what you want and it happens, he said.

Unlike many in the current wave of AI start-ups serving enterprises or creating core tech for developers, Alexa has maintained its predominant consumer focus. Today, for example, you can order groceries or an Uber with Alexa+. At Amazons Devices and Services event last fall, the company flashed
a slide packed with integration partners. Discovery and danger zones Rausch also shares that a good deal of the dialogue consumers are leaning into includes other kinds of discovery, asking Alexa about its new capabilities. While such dialogue is also occurring with Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude, Alexas voice-first usage model likely leads to a more free-form exploration.

In contrast, other AI chat interfaces have taken to compartmentalizing their capabilities: create an image, help me learn, etc. (Claudes have taken a looser approach, with an invitation to discuss life stuff.)

But while exploration can be rewarding, rabbit holes can lead to dark places. In the last few years, passing the once-formidable Turing Test (which posed whether a computer could convince a human that they were talking to another human) has become childs play for todays agents, at least in limited interactions.

Getting deep into a process with some chatbots can trigger a persistent drive to egg you on, to do one more thing. In some cases, humans have formed relationships in which theyve got engaged to their AI chatbot . Other relationships have turned far more tragic. Social media is an attention sieve compared to what targeted AI can deliver if the business model calls for it. Echo devices introduced last fall were the first to feature Amazon's
OmniSense technology. (Image credit: Amazon) Rausch acknowledges that he has seen experiences from other companies where the goal is clearly to just continue the interaction. However, while he notes that Alexa will often ask follow-ups, it is not designed to drive engagement for its own sake.

We want to help customers get something done. That is the design plan of Alexa. All of our work cascades to getting something done, he says.

As for guardrails to protect against AI that might become manipulative,
Rausch points to Amazons eleven-year track record in providing safe AI and a study that shows that Alexa has been particularly resilient to distorting the truth.

While much of that was in an era where the most dangerous mistruth Alexa
might tell you was about the chance of rain, Rausch touts the work that Amazons AI trust and safety team works to discourage isolation and emotional dependence.

He revealed to me: One of our tenets of trust is that, when you talk to
Alexa, she will help you prioritize your people friends. Our goal is to help customers make those relationships strong." This time, it's personal While OpenClaw may be pushing the envelope far beyond what Alexa can do today, Rausch sees it as sharing the same design goal, but without the need to dedicate a PC, flash a Raspberry Pi, or cash in some crypto to afford more tokens.

While many OpenClaw pioneers can justify the time and expense as helping them automate a small business or work a side hustle, Alexas rolled-up sleeves
will take on more mainstream tasks. Alexa and Gemini, for example, have recently implemented agents that work asynchronously.

Rausch cites rapidly growing interest in a Ticketmaster-monitoring task that can get an early jump on tickets in high demand.

But if Alexa+ raises the stakes on what the assistant can deliver, it also raises the stakes of what it needs to perform optimally. Last falls Echo updates added sensing technology to provide more context around whats happening in the home.

And while Alexa has no smartphone platform beyond the Alexa app ( yet? ),
Ring and Blink customers can offer it a sense not only of seeing what Im seeing, but of seeing what Im not seeing when Im not there. Amazon's Bee
audio recording device uses AI to develop musings into plans. (Image credit: Bee) That said, to truly deliver the optimal level of personalization in
which AI, particularly AI focused on results, Amazon will have to step up its focus on personal devices. The company took a step toward that last year with the purchase of Bee .

The companys deceptively simple wristband allows recording of notes and meetings, but does more processing of them into next steps within its app. In addition, its been a while since weve seen new iterations of the Echo Buds
and Echo Frames, both last updated in 2023. Alexas first decade was about being everywhere. The roadmap for the second is about getting things done anywhere. Read more: We tested out the best AI tools you can get right now.



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