Latest news with #Panay
Mint
08-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Alexa! Can this Amazon executive make you cool again?
'And it actually played," he says, hands on his knees, leaning into the audience of reporters and analysts at February demonstration of Alexa+, a rebooted, AI-infused version of the virtual assistant. 'Sounds kind of funny right now, but 10 years ago, it was mind-blowing." During that first encounter with Alexa, Panay was working for Microsoft, developing Surface tablets and laptops that earned a cultlike following. Now, he is a year and a half into overseeing Amazon's devices and services—including Alexa, which hasn't changed much in the past decade, even as the tech world has been upended by advances like ChatGPT. After releasing Alexa to widespread acclaim in 2015, Amazon had a head start getting people to engage with AI. But users still primarily ask the voice assistant for things like timers and the weather. Alexa and the devices unit have become a multibillion-dollar drag on Amazon's bottom line, a reminder of how a company known for its limitless expansionary ambitions failed to win at the next big thing. For years, the devices unit unveiled a flurry of products like a house drone, a fitness wristband and a smartphone to see what might land with consumers. Alexa was integrated into microwaves, refrigerators and even eyeglasses. Panay has scaled back the number of launches, focusing instead on ensuring that products like Alexa+ are functioning perfectly before rolling out to roughly 600 million devices. 'I believe simple is always better," Panay, 52, said in an interview. 'Anything you buy from Amazon, you will not only fall in love with, but it's also going to be that much easier to use." Amazon has repeatedly delayed the full release of its smarter Alexa since first showcasing a version in September 2023. In early tests, as generative-AI capabilities were added, it became less reliable for existing tasks like turning on the lights. Responses were too often jumbled or took too long. The company says Alexa+ will be available as an optional software update this summer to most, if not all, customers, though it hasn't announced a specific date. According to the company, the new version of Alexa—which Panay refers to as 'she," a rarity even among employees—will be able to arrange personal calendar events, play the music you want based on a vague description and remember dietary preferences for at-home meals. Alexa will be conversational, able to talk about major sporting events like a human friend, and capable of contacting and scheduling a contractor for house repairs, Amazon says. Panay joined Amazon in October 2023 and inherited some of the delays, but he has also held up its wider release until he is satisfied that Alexa+ will work flawlessly, conversationally and with limited lag time, people familiar with the matter say. He is often testing it out at home and reporting bugs. In one meeting last year, he told staff that he and one of his daughters had prompted Alexa+ to play a top-50 song with only context clues, but Alexa couldn't find the song. He told his team that Alexa+ had to be better at helping people find what they were looking for. Panay built his reputation at Microsoft, where he was known as the 'godfather" of the Surface devices and oversaw Windows. He was instrumental in the popular, minimalist aesthetics of the Surface tablet and was known to ask company engineers about numerous small details. Surface products weren't an immediate success. In 2013, Microsoft took a $900 million charge related to its struggling Surface RT tablet before the Surface Pro 3 became a hit. Panay became the effusive onstage showman, cultivating product launches akin to Apple's. On stage, and most days, he wears all black to simplify his wardrobe decisions and adorns his outfits with gold bracelets or rings, and sometimes flashy Nike sneakers. Panos Panay, shown here in 2017, was well-known for his Surface product launch events at Microsoft. At Microsoft, Panay hosted his friend and comedian Trevor Noah, who's known for his interest in technology, more than once. In 2019, Noah posted on Instagram a photo of himself with Panay in a Microsoft lab, saying he'd asked the executive for 'extra features and free Xbox games." Panay spent weeks preparing for his presentations at Microsoft, said Ryan Day, who worked on the Surface's public-relations team. Panay would ask every team member how they thought a product's story should be told, and he pulled engineers to the side to ask how the hinges on devices would work or to figure out exact dimensions that would entice customers. 'He was obsessed with the mechanics of physical products," Day said. 'He never got up there and winged it." Panay left Microsoft after more than 19 years to join Amazon, where he took over a sprawling division that includes everything from the Kindle e-reader to the Zoox autonomous vehicle and the Project Kuiper satellite-internet business, meant to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink. He knows that getting Alexa+ right is critical because it will release to millions of people who depend on the technology across multiple devices. It's a very public rollout. Some new features, such as certain personalized reminders and routines for family members, grocery ordering, creating personalized music, and third-party services like food ordering through Grubhub, haven't been available for early testers. An Amazon spokesman said that nearly 90% of the Alexa+ features that the company announced are available for early users, though it isn't clear how big that group is. The spokesman said that the rest of the features will be available this summer. Teams have demonstrated Alexa+ to Panay every few weeks. At one internal demo late last year, the assistant accidentally duplicated items in a shopping cart for a recipe. It also would default to recommending bananas to everyone since those are one of the most popular grocery items on Amazon. Panay insists that all of Alexa's problems must be ironed out before the release. 'He really has us putting our back into 'Let's be a world-class consumer electronics company,'" said Daniel Rausch, Amazon's vice president of Alexa and Echo, who reports to Panay. Last year, Panay noticed that the Echo Show visual display with Alexa+ had some screens with an easy-to-spot 'back" button but other screens where he had to swipe to go back. He told staff to make the function consistent, saying other, non-Amazon devices had such consistency. Panay—not to be confused with his cousin, Panos A. Panay, the president of the Recording Academy, which organizes the Grammy Awards—was born in the Los Angeles area and is of Cypriot-Greek descent. He grew up in Burbank, Calif., and received a bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge, and a master's in business from Pepperdine University. Early in his career, he worked at NMB Technologies, where he helped develop products such as keyboards and speakers. He now lives in the Seattle area. Each day, the married father of four wakes up at 4:15 a.m. to journal, typically writing personal memos about the products he and his team are working on. Lately, he says he's learning from 'Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor known for his ideas on Stoicism. 'You can't always be beating yourself up," he said. Philosophical works are 'where I can always be learning and not judging, just trying to be myself at the end of the day." Amazon's original financial strategy was to sell underpriced Echo speakers enabled with Alexa in hopes of getting people to spend more throughout the Amazon ecosystem. It didn't work, and the Amazon devices unit, dragged down by the financial performance of Echo, has overall been a money loser. It became clear that it wasn't going to be profitable alone, which is why the company is now tying Alexa+ to Prime, said a person familiar with the matter. Alexa+ will be included with an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $14.99 a month, or as a separate $19.99-a-month subscription.
Engadget
29-05-2025
- Business
- Engadget
The Zune's creator is leading a secretive team at Amazon
J Allard, a former Microsoft executive and the mind behind the Zune, is leading a new team at Amazon, CNBC reports. Allard is officially the vice president of Amazon's ZeroOne, which, based on at least one Amazon job listing, is "a special projects team dedicated to inventing breakthrough consumer product categories." What ZeroOne is actually working on remains a bit mysterious, but CNBC was able to find another listing for a "Senior Applied Scientist" role that suggests the team will be "conceiving, designing, and bringing to market computer vision techniques for a new smart-home product." Computer vision is the umbrella term for technologies that allow computer systems to "understand" images and video — for example, the ability for a Ring Video Doorbell to identify when a package is on your door step. Depending on your taste in MP3 players, Allard's role in the creation of the Microsoft Zune could justifiably give you pause. Microsoft's failed MP3 player looked distinct, but was no match for the popularity of the iPod. The Zune was one of several interesting, if unsuccessful projects Allard led at Microsoft, including the Microsoft Kin, and the Courier, a book-style tablet that was later reimagined as the Surface Neo. Allard also co-created the original Xbox, arguably his biggest claim to fame at the company. ZeroOne will exist inside Amazon's larger devices and services division, which is led by Panos Panay, another Microsoft expat. Panay joined Amazon to lead the division in 2023, after several years overseeing the development of Surface hardware and Windows 11 at Microsoft. Since Panay joined the company, Amazon has launched a new lineup of Kindles and introduced Alexa+, its integration of generative AI into the well-known voice assistant. Hiring both Allard and Panay suggests Amazon plans to lean even harder into product development going forward.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alexa+ Takes a Page From Apple Intelligence With Staggered AI Rollout
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. Alexa+ is expected to debut on Monday with a few new features, but it may be months before we see what Amazon's new voice assistant can really do. As The Washington Post reports, next week's launch will be limited to summoning an Uber or asking what you should cook for dinner. You can also upload documents for Alexa+ to summarize, but you can't delete what you feed into Alexa+ for now, the Post says. The document uploads—from instruction manuals to kids' soccer practice schedules—aim to give Alexa more information about users' lives so it can act as a comprehensive assistant. At launch, the updated voice assistant will work on newer Echo devices (no first-gen versions or Echo Show 2nd Gen). The Echo Show 15 and Echo Show 21 are the first in line, but Alexa+ Early Access will also roll out to the Echo Show 8 and 10, according to the fine print. Early access also includes a mobile app experience, where users can "chat with the new Alexa on mobile, get personalized recommendations, and manage your home on-the-go," Amazon says. Eventually, you'll be able to summon Alexa+ on the web and via Fire TVs and tablets. When Early Access ends, Alexa+ will become part of Prime or $19.99/month on its own. "Features will be released on a rolling basis as Alexa continues to get smarter and more capable every day," Amazon says. "Alexa may not get everything right, and we value feedback from everyone who participates. Just say, 'Alexa, I have feedback.'" This revamped Alexa promises a more humanlike conversational flow—no more rigid "Alexa voice," as Amazon's head of devices, Panos Panay, said at last month's reveal. Whether it works as expected remains to be seen. Other features in the works include the ability to order takeout on Grubhub after talking through dinner options with Alexa+ and identifying family members on the device's camera, the Post says. At the launch event, Panay showcased camera recognition by asking Alexa+ to access his home's Ring camera to confirm if his daughter had walked their dog that day. This gradual rollout of AI features mirrors what Apple is doing with its AI platform, Apple Intelligence. However, this strategy has left customers confused about what features are available and on which devices. A group of iPhone 16 buyers are suing Apple for false advertising since Apple Intelligence features did not launch until a month after Apple's flagship devices hit stores. And even then, it only included a handful of marginally helpful AI tools and a barebones Siri update. As Amazon preps for a larger Alexa+ rollout, meanwhile, it turned off the ability for users to store their Echo device recordings locally. Now, all that data will go to Amazon's servers to feed "generative AI features that rely on the processing power of Amazon's secure cloud."
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SALTZMAN: Alexa gets ‘her' biggest upgrade in a decade
Alexa is about to get much smarter. Amazon's popular personal assistant has already powered more than 600 million devices worldwide over the past 10 years, says the company – including its many Echo-branded smart speakers and Echo Show smart displays – but this cheeky chatbot is getting infused with a much bigger brain, more personality, and a memory that recalls your previous preferences. Called Alexa+, tech journalists like yours truly recently attended 'her' coming-out party, which includes several demos to showcase her improvement – mostly tied to recent advancements in generative AI ('genAI') and large language models ('LLMs'). 'Every once in a while a technology comes around and changes literally everything,' Amazon's Senior Vice President of Devices and Services Panos Panay said Wednesday at the company's devices launch. 'The creation of GenAI has shaken up everything.' 'Alexa+ now understands you, is more conversational and contextual, connects you to your favourite services and actually takes action,' Panay continued, while onstage at the NYC event. 'She knows the devices you have, the apps you use, and brings it all together to help you get stuff done. It's magical.' SALTZMAN: Wildly wearable gadgets SALTZMAN: Gear up for your next ride SALTZMAN: Cool things you didn't know your Smart TV can do Alexa+ will work with most existing Echo, Echo Show and Fire TV devices, but a new phone app and revamped web experience ( will compliment the hardware support. First rolling out to some U.S. users in late March, followed by Canada and other markets at some point, the following are some examples of Alexa's new capabilities. According to Amazon, you only need to say the wake word 'Alexa' once and then you can converse with your assistant as you would with a fellow human. Some live demos from the event: It remembers your tastes and distastes, allergies and more Tell Alexa your food preferences, such as 'I like Indian and Greek food' and perhaps 'I'm also a pescatarian' and it can suggest relevant meatless recipes for you, takeout/food delivery options, or restaurant recommendations. You can say something like, 'We also have a picky five-year-old coming to our dinner party, so what would you recommend?' (The answer may be chicken bites or pasta, along with recipes.) If you tell Alexa you're craving pizza and ask where should you order a pie from, it will search for nearby pizzerias and tell you the highest rated ones. She may add what the establishment is famous for (e.g. 'best-known for its wood-fired 12-inch Neopolitan-style pizza'), and Alexa may ask you want it delivered now or later. Build smarter shopping lists Speaking of food, when creating a shopping list for groceries, in one demo the Amazon person reviewed the spoken items on a screen and said, 'Actually, I'd prefer two half gallons of milk instead of a one-gallon jug as I find it lasts longer,' and Alexa will remember details like that going forward. Unlike the previous Alexa, the new Alexa+ is more forgiving if you stutter or say 'um' or 'uh' a lot, if you talk over 'her,' change what you're asking on the fly, and so on. Have Alexa+ perform actions for you Alexa can access your info, like a calendar and contacts, to perform tasks. For instance, Alexa+ may proactively alert you to a calendar conflict, such as your child's dance recital at the same time as picking up your visiting father-in-law from the airport. Alexa+ may ask you if you'd like to send an Uber to the airport instead (and at what time) to bring him to your home, and send a text to him with the rideshare details. Or if you upload, say, a party invitation to your assistant will analyze the details of the invite and automatically put the party in your calendar. Documents can be analyzed and summarized Another example of document uploading: Alexa+ will remember what you've archived and refer to it. An example given by Amazon is if you move into a new home and upload a PDF of the HOA (Homeowner Association) rules for the community to in the future you can ask Alexa+ if solar panels are allowed on your home, and you may hear a response like, 'Yes, you're allowed, so long as they cannot be seen from the road.' Scrub through videos In another AI-based demonstration, an Amazon Echo Show smart display recognized who walked up to it (without you even needing to say 'Alexa' first), and the Amazon employee asked, 'Did anyone walk Buddy today?' This particular Alexa+ knows the family dog is named Buddy and then scrubbed through Ring doorbell videos of any comings and goings of your beloved Bernedoodle, and shows you relevant video clips. Similarly, you can ask if there were any deliveries today and it will only look for couriers. This is part of Amazon's recently launched 'Smart Video Search' functionality, currently in beta. Magic for music lovers At the New York event, Alexa+ was asked, 'What was the name of that song from Bradley Cooper, it's a duet, from that movie?' And Alexa+ immediately answered and played Shallow, with Lady Gaga, from the film A Star Is Born. The Amazon presenter then said, 'Show me this part of the movie,' and a nearby Fire TV-branded television loaded A Star Is Born at the exact moment Cooper and Gaga began to sing together. Unlocking kids imagination Kids can ask Alexa+ to make up a story before bedtime. Children may also be prompted for more details like 'make it about a peacock who plays electric guitar and wants to go on an adventure.' Without missing a beat, Alexa+ will generate and narrate a made-up story – that could be recalled at a later time if it was good enough – and even add generated images to compliment the narration on a device with a display (like an Echo Show 15). A FEW MORE DEETS Along with Alexa's friendlier and more upbeat tone, if you're talking with a smart display (opposed to a smart speaker), a flowing blue animation appears on the bottom of the device screen when Alexa responds, showcasing her more expressive user-interface. Amazon also showed a series of new 'widgets' on the Echo Show home screen, including ones that display animated weather info, suggested recipes, recent apps you've used, an ongoing shopping list, and connected smart home devices. Alexa+ is optional. While price isn't confirmed for Canada yet, it will cost U.S. users $19.99 a month – but it will be free if you're an Amazon Prime member.
CNN
28-02-2025
- Business
- CNN
Amazon has a ‘slew of AI devices' coming, hardware chief says
Amazon debuted a more sophisticated version of Alexa on Wednesday that's more conversational and can handle tasks on your behalf. But in a surprising departure from its usual playbook, the company didn't announce new Echo devices to go with its revamped digital helper. But that might not be the case for long. While Panos Panay, head of Amazon's devices and services business, wouldn't say whether the company was considering a new version of its Alexa-enabled smart glasses with cameras to compete with Meta's Ray-Bans, he did suggest that new products are in the works. 'But I think you can imagine, there's going to be a whole slew of AI devices that are coming,' he told CNN in an interview. His remarks come as tech giants are racing to incorporate AI agents and chatbots into new devices. Apple's artificial intelligence suite, Apple Intelligence, was the headlining feature of Apple's iPhone 16 lineup, including the cheaper iPhone 16e that was just announced last week. Microsoft has also made its Copilot virtual helper the centerpiece of its ubiquitous Windows PC operating system. Panay declined to offer more details on the nature of the 'slew of AI devices.' But he suggested new products would be part of a larger overall vision. 'You can imagine… a constellation of devices that has to come together to make it a better experience,' Panay added. Amazon already has a 'constellation' of devices, from its Ring security cameras to its Eero Wi-Fi routers and, of course, its Echo smart speakers. And it's starting to incorporate Alexa+ into some of those gadgets; Alexa+ will be able to answer questions about what happened in your home while you were gone based on Ring camera footage, for example. The company has also dabbled in smart rings and fitness trackers in addition to its Alexa-powered glasses. But smart glasses, or glasses that have embedded virtual assistants and can play music and deliver phone notifications, are becoming more relevant thanks to improved AI models that can process both visual and speech input. Meta's Ray Ban glasses, which can translate language and answer questions about what a user is looking at, have seemingly caught on with people so far, at least somewhat. While the numbers pale in comparison to the numbers of consumer electronics, like iPhones, Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica reported this month that two million pairs have been sold since their 2023 debut. Samsung and Google also announced last year that they're building a new version of Android specifically for smart glasses in the future, hinting that a wave of new spectacles are likely to come. But Amazon's glasses, called the Echo Frames, lack cameras and arguably came too soon – long before the arrival of Alexa+ and other AI assistants that can process sight and sound simultaneously. But for now, Amazon is keeping its focus on Alexa. 'We have an amazing lineup coming,' Panay said of future hardware devices. 'But we also have an amazing lineup in market, and Alexa (is) so new.'
