
I asked Alexa Plus to tackle my to-do list — it mostly failed
The idea is I can talk to Alexa Plus as I would to a real personal assistant and ask it to do tasks, such as reserving a restaurant for my friend's birthday, finding an electrician to fix my broken sprinkler pump, or booking tickets to a Chris Isaak concert.
The assistant can then act as an 'AI agent' and navigate online services on my behalf to book everything for me. Combined with better calendar management and the ability to remember things you tell it, Alexa's agentic AI has the potential to make the assistant much more useful.
Alexa's AI agent features are neither broad enough nor seamless enough to replace my real-life personal assistant: me
At least in theory. In reality, it's too limited. Alexa Plus relies on partnerships with specific services; it can't just roam the web and do my bidding. As of now, that includes Ticketmaster, OpenTable, Uber, and Thumbtack. While impressively, Alexa did manage to complete several steps, overall, the AI agent's current features are neither broad enough nor seamless enough to replace my real-life personal assistant: me.
Alexa Plus is still in an Early Access beta phase, and Amazon says more integrations are coming soon. These include ordering groceries by voice (via 'several grocery providers in the US'), delivery through Grubhub, and booking spa visits through Vagaro.
These may be more useful to me, especially grocery ordering. I already use Alexa for my shopping list, but I then have to put everything into my Harris Teeter shopping app for pickup or delivery. If Alexa could take that list and add it to a service like Instacart, it would cut out a chunk of work for me.
Of the three agentic experiences I tested, the best was booking a ticket to an event through Ticketmaster. After a dodgy start — when I asked about sports events and was told about a youth basketball training session — I tried again. 'What events are there in Charleston next month that you can buy me tickets for?'
Alexa produced a list of about 10 local sports events and concerts on the Echo Show 15 I was using (Alexa Plus is much more useful on a screened device). It told me, 'You've got music shows like Blackberry Smoke and Mike Campbell on August 5th and Collective Soul on August 6th. There's also a Cure tribute band on August 2nd. Anything catch your interest?'
I spotted a Chris Isaak concert in the list (I love a good Wicked Game) and told it to book me tickets. It found balcony seats for $98.15 each and asked how many I wanted, while also showing me more expensive options.
I selected the cheap seats, and it walked me through each step as it added them to my cart, ending with a checkout button where my credit card details were pre-populated. (I'd linked my Ticketmaster account in the Alexa app when I first set up Alexa Plus.)
I canceled before purchasing, because I don't love a Wicked Game $200 much, and Alexa confirmed that the tickets were released. However, alarmingly, later that day, a pop-up in the Alexa app told me that anyone with access to my Alexa devices can order tickets. Amazon: I'll take a PIN option here, please.
Next, I asked Alexa to 'book a dinner for two in downtown Charleston for tomorrow night at 7PM.' It returned three options, which is just sad — Charleston has a hopping foodie scene. I picked a French spot I'd been to before and changed it up, asking Alexa to 'make it for two weeks on Friday.' Unfazed, Alexa understood, pivoted and confirmed availability for Friday, July 31st, at 7PM, then asked if I wanted to book. After I confirmed, it said it would also add the reservation to my linked Gmail calendar. Handy!
Alexa had messed up the date
Or so I thought. I then received a text message from OpenTable, confirming my reservation for Thursday, July 31st. Alexa had messed up the date. I told Alexa to switch the reservation to Friday, August 1st, and it did, also updating my calendar.
While it eventually booked the table, Alexa took longer to do it and was less accurate than if I'd just opened the OpenTable app on my phone (or more realistically, the Resy app that most restaurants in Charleston use) and done it myself.
Finally, I had Alexa tackle a chore I've been putting off for two years: finding an electrician. I've been meaning to get the circuit for my sprinkler pump fixed for ages. It's on the same one as my internet router, so when the pump kicks in, it trips the circuit — and down goes my Wi-Fi.
The big difference is that I did all of this hands-free
I told Alexa I needed an electrician to fix the sprinkler system, and asked if it could book one. It pulled a list of several 'highly rated electricians' in my area via Thumbtack, highlighting the top three. I picked one and asked it to schedule a visit for a week from now. Alexa asked several follow-up questions about my house and the specific issue — it felt a bit like filling out a webform with my voice. Alexa, then said it was working on sending the request through the Thumbtack website, and that I'd get updates soon.
A few hours later, still no word from Alexa. But I received an email from Thumbtack (the first of many…) and a text message from the electrician asking me to call or text to schedule an appointment. Not exactly the seamless set-it-and-forget-it experience I'd hoped for.
Still, the big difference is that I did all of this hands-free. I could be setting up dinner dates and finding electricians while cooking dinner or folding laundry. As a working mother of two, anything that helps with multitasking so I can complete my to-do list faster is welcome. But while the tech is impressive, the lack of depth and the failures I experienced in two out of my three tests mean I don't plan to rely on Alexa to do these tasks for me just yet.
Photography by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Preserve capital, don't swing 'for the fences,' portfolio manager says
STORY: "If you have investments that generate current income, you have the ability to take advantage of the most powerful force in the universe, and that's compound interest," Dean said. Until President Trump's trade policy is settled, "this is not a time to be buying dips [on stocks]," he added.
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
GOP Senator Gets Fooled By Obviously Fake Fed Chair Resignation Letter
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted — and then deleted — what appeared at first glance Tuesday to be a resignation letter from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump's nemesis of the past several months. Trump has repeatedly argued that Powell should either lower interest rates across the country or resign. He has gone so far as to hint at — and then backtrack on — the idea that he may fire Powell himself. The letter briefly shared by Lee, however, is clearly a fake, and Powell is not going anywhere immediately. The formatting of the letter is strange, with line breaks at odd intervals. But most tellingly, the words around an official-looking blue seal stamped to the letter appear to read: 'OEOD OF GOVERYAEB EIREBAL RESERVE SIEIVA.' ADVERTISEMENT In other words, gibberish. Lee told a reporter for The Hilland others that he swiftly deleted the image after realizing he had not confirmed its authenticity. A spokesperson for the senator did not immediately respond to HuffPost's request for comment. Trump appointed Powell as chair of the Fed back in 2017, although he has tried to distance himself from that decision in recent days. Sen. Mike Lee tweeted (and appears to have deleted) what he appears to believe is a resignation letter (??) from Powell — Jordain Carney (@jordainc) July 22, 2025 Related...
Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stellantis Posts $2.7B First-Half Loss as Tariffs Hit Jeep Maker
Stellantis (STLA, Financials) reported a 2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) net loss for the first half of 2025, reversing a 5.6 billion profit from the same period a year ago, as tariffs, restructuring costs and weak shipments hit the automaker's bottom line. In preliminary results released Monday, the Jeep and Chrysler parent said it incurred 300 million ($349 million) in costs from early impacts of new U.S. tariffs. Revenue dropped 13% year over year to 74.3 billion from 85 billion. The company had suspended its full-year outlook in April citing tariff-related uncertainty. North American vehicle shipments in the second quarter fell 25% to 109,000 units, though U.S. retail sales were described as relatively flat, supported by a 13% gain from Jeep and Ram combined. Overall global sales declined 10% from a year earlier. This is the first earnings report under new CEO Antonio Filosa, who took over following the sudden exit of Carlos Tavares last December. Final results are due July 29. UBS analysts said Monday that Stellantis' free cash flow is likely to remain negative in 2025, as the second half is unlikely to offset the first-half cash burn. Shares were little changed in premarket trading and are down nearly 30% year to date. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.