Amazon’s AI-powered Alexa Plus has become the strongest smart home assistant the company has released, but its attempts to serve as a broader personal assistant remain unreliable, according to a year-long review by The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy. The review, published after Alexa Plus moved from early access to a full launch in February 2026, found the assistant handles multistep commands, routines, and cooking help well while stumbling on personal tasks and interrupting users with ads.
Tuohy tested Alexa Plus in her home since July 2025 using an Echo Show 11 in her kitchen, Pops and Dots around the house, and Show 15 and 8 devices in her office. She used voice commands to control smart home devices, set timers, follow recipes, manage calendars and shopping lists, and occasionally order from Amazon. She reported that response times have improved from 10 to 15 seconds in 2025 to three to five seconds today.
Alexa Plus is Amazon’s generative AI overhaul of its digital assistant, available through Echo speakers and displays, Fire TV, and other Alexa-built-in devices, as well as the Alexa app and Alexa.com. It is free on the web, in the app, and on Fire TV but requires an Amazon Prime membership or a $19.99-a-month subscription in the US to use on compatible Echo devices. It is available in the US and Canada and in early access in Mexico, the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Brazil, Australia, and India, while the original Alexa remains free on Echo devices.
The review credits Alexa Plus with major gains in smart home control, general knowledge, calendar management, and shopping. Tuohy said she imported her daughter’s school schedule and used screenshots of sewing supplies to fill an Amazon cart. She also praised the ability to create and adjust routines by voice, including changing a bathroom light routine to shut off after 30 minutes instead of 15.
Those improvements came at a cost. Tuohy said she had to rebuild her smart home from scratch, deleting old skills, routines, and dead devices, a process that took months. She reported re-adding 55 Hue devices six times over the past year and called the Alexa app, which remains difficult for adding, deleting, and moving devices, the biggest flaw.
Three problems stand out: ads on Echo Show displays, inconsistent performance, and underbaked personal assistant features. Tuohy said every Show device now acts as a rotating billboard for Amazon goods, with ads appearing between photos and the clock even after homescreen content is disabled. She also noted Alexa can still forget context, including who she is or where her daughter goes to school.
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