All-new Alexa might not be ready for Amazon's launch event

Amazon is due to hold an event in New York before the end of the month, and Alexa is very much on the agenda. The invites for the event, which will take place on 26 February, were sent out to select media a couple of weeks ago and it's clear Amazon's voice assistant is set to be the focus.

It's possible new hardware will also be announced at the event, though at the moment, it's the new AI-powered Alexa that's the main talking point for rumours. Not least because it may be suffering from teething troubles.

Amazon has been working on making Alexa smarter for a couple of years now – it teased the next generation of Alexa back in 2023 when it announced the Echo Show 8 and other devices.

It's meant to be smarter, more conversational and use more enhanced language models, but is still yet to arrive. Now the latest report suggests that while it might be officially announced at the event next week, its launch delay may continue.

When is the new Alexa coming?

According to a piece posted by The Washington Post (via Android Authority), internal messages suggest the public release of the new Alexa is being pushed back by an extra month.

The publication was told by an unnamed Amazon employee that the new Alexa may not arrive until the end of March, even later, as it is apparently struggling to give accurate answers to test questions.

The new Alexa is expected to offer advanced capabilities when it does eventually land however, like being able to adopt a personality. It is also said to be able to "recall conversations, order takeout or call a taxi".

The danger here is that many AI-powered services, like Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Apple's Siri, all promise plenty but none of them quite live up to it yet.

When the new Alexa does arrive, it is expected to be part of a subscription, with the current Alexa remaining free. All should be revealed on 26 February, so at least there isn't too long to wait to find out exactly what the new AI Alexa will offer, how much it might cost, and when it will arrive on devices.