Amazon launches its enhanced Alexa+ in Australia, featuring localisation, generative AI and new integration options, signalling a significant upgrade in household virtual assistance.
Amazon has launched Alexa+ in Australia, pitching the upgraded assistant as a more conversational and more locally tuned version of its voice platform. The company says the system is built on generative AI and is designed to handle a wider range of everyday tasks, from managing diaries and bookings to home security and shopping.
At a media event in Sydney, Kate Gooden, Amazon’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand, said the new assistant marks the company’s biggest step yet in personal AI. Amazon says Alexa+ uses advanced language models through its Bedrock platform and is intended to do more than answer simple queries, with a stronger focus on completing tasks for households and individuals.
A key part of the Australian rollout is localisation. Amazon says Alexa+ has been trained with input from engineers, linguists and speech scientists so it can better recognise the way Australians speak and respond with a more distinctly local personality. The assistant will also support services used in Australian homes, including Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, local radio, ABC, The Associated Press and Reuters, with restaurant bookings through OpenTable and TripAdvisor due later.
The company is also moving Alexa beyond the speaker and into the browser with Alexa.com.au, which it says will support more complex research and allow conversations to continue across home devices and mobile apps. Amazon says Australians have already used Alexa more than 2 billion times over the past year, asking 77 million questions and carrying out more than 600 million smart home actions in 2025 alone.
Alexa+ is being made available now through an early access programme at no charge for eligible customers. Once that programme ends, Amazon says the service will be included free for Prime members and will cost $29.99 a month as a standalone subscription. Amazon’s US materials say Alexa+ is also expanding into other markets, including Australia, as it broadens its next-generation assistant beyond North America.
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