reuters.com
www.reuters.com

Amazon (AMZN.O) is planning a major revamp of its decade-old money-losing Alexa service to include a conversational generative AI with two tiers of service and has considered a monthly fee of around $5 to access the superior version, according to people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans.

  • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
    652·
    6 days ago

    Between inserting ads into Amazon Video, scaling back on fast delivery, and this it looks like Amazon has maxed out their growth and are scaling back on their loss leaders that were used to get where they are.

    • essteeyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
      151·
      6 days ago

      For the first time in at least a decade of being a Prime member. I have set a reminder to cancel before it renews next time.

      So many deliveries fail to be on time, I’m getting too many ads in my face when I use products I paid for (Fire TV auto-plays ads for content or cars or whatever now).

      • GamingChairModel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        6 days ago

        Don’t set a reminder, just cancel now. If you cancel, you get the rest of the time you paid for and it just doesn’t automatically review, so there’s no penalty to canceling early versus right before the deadline.

        • essteeyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          6 days ago

          I’m not sure that’s true. There’s a pause option and a cancel option. It sounds like canceling ends your benefits immediately, and the pause leaves them. I want to cancel, but at the right time.

            • essteeyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
              32·
              6 days ago

              Well, I’ve set the reminder. There’s no urgency to cancel with 6 months left on the clock.

          • diannetea@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            4 days ago

            It’s true, I canceled mine last year. I also haven’t missed it, if I need things from Amazon I just have to spend over 35 for free shipping, and while it’s slower it really doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it might.

      • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 days ago

        Unfortunately, I’m still getting overnight and next day delivery on a lot of stuff, so I’m not giving Prime up. I did stop watching Prime Video already, since I’m not paying yet more.

        Now I’m already way into the Apple ecosystem, so if Amazon insists that I give Apple yet more money for airpods, I’m ok with that

        • essteeyou@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          I use the overnight and next day delivery a lot, but when it goes wrong it’s very frustrating, because there’s seemingly nowhere else to buy an 8TB HDD in-person. Fry’s closed down, Best Buy is garbage, etc.

          We made this bed by giving Amazon all of our business and shutting down all their competitors. :-/

      • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nzEnglish
        41·
        6 days ago

        Cancel now! It’s incredibly convoluted process that makes you think you’ve done it but no, there’s always one more confirm screen hiding behind a tiny button