Amazon’s new AI-enabled assistant, Alexa Plus, is set to launch today, although not all features will be available immediately. Some capabilities, such as ordering takeout through Grubhub and visually identifying family members, will take months to roll out, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post. While Alexa Plus can assist with ordering an Uber and providing cooking suggestions starting Monday, access will be limited to owners of newer Echo Show models. Customers can also expect a new document-reading feature, but with limitations, including a message stating that deletion of uploaded files is not yet supported.
Amazon also introduced Nova Act, a new general-purpose artificial intelligence agent capable of controlling web browsers to perform simple tasks autonomously. Nova Act is expected to enhance the upgrade of Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa. Nova Act achieved a score of ninety-four percent on the ScreenSpot Web Text benchmark, outperforming competitors from OpenAI and Anthropic
Microsoft has announced the launch of “deep reasoning” artificial intelligence agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot, named Researcher and Analyst, which will be rolled out in April 2025. These innovative tools are designed to enhance research and data analysis capabilities within the platform. Researcher leverages OpenAI’s advanced research AI model to conduct complex, multi-step inquiries, while Analyst uses OpenAI’s o3-mini reasoning model to transform raw data into actionable insights, including generating spreadsheets and executing Python code. Microsoft emphasizes that these agents can automate a wide range of tasks through rule-based workflows. The company has stated that these new features will be accessible to Microsoft 365 Copilot license holders in an early access program.
Why do we care?
As new AI capabilities emerge, the focus should be on practical applications that enhance business outcomes rather than following the hype. Here are several possibilities.