Amazon’s AI-driven digital assistant, Alexa+, is gaining enhanced functionality. On Thursday, the company revealed four upcoming integrations for the service, set to begin in 2026, which will enable Alexa+ to collaborate with Angi, Expedia, Square, and Yelp.
These new features will empower users to perform actions like booking hotels, obtaining home service quotes, and arranging salon appointments. Specifically, the Expedia integration will facilitate comparing, booking, and managing hotel reservations, or allow users to state their preferences to Alexa for tailored suggestions (e.g., “Can you find me pet-friendly hotels for this weekend in Chicago?”).
These latest services will complement Alexa+’s current integrations, which include Fodor, OpenTable, Suno, Ticketmaster, Thumbtack, and Uber.
Mirroring ChatGPT’s recent move to integrate applications into its chatbot, Amazon’s objective is to simplify consumer access to diverse online services via its digital assistant. For example, users could command Alexa to summon an Uber or reserve a dinner table through OpenTable.
Furthermore, users can engage in natural language conversations with the AI assistant, participating in iterative dialogues to refine their requests.
However, the adoption rate of this concept by users is yet to be determined.
Nevertheless, Amazon provided some insight into how early adopters of Alexa+ are utilizing these integrations, observing that home and personal service providers such as Thumbtack and Vagaro have experienced “strong” engagement thus far.
The industry is currently exploring the paradigm of employing AI assistants as application platforms, viewing it as an additional avenue to make AI more accessible to a wider consumer base. This approach, however, necessitates a shift in user habits, given that many are accustomed to accessing online services through websites or dedicated mobile applications. For consumers to successfully alter their behavior, utilizing apps through AI must be perceived as equally, if not more, straightforward than current methods.
To achieve this, AI providers would need to offer a range of online services comparable to that of a conventional app store, which already presents a more refined selection than what’s available on the web. Alternatively, providers must excel at recommending relevant apps precisely when needed, without appearing intrusive, as users might interpret unsolicited suggestions as advertisements.