Amazon launches Alexa+ in India with Hindi support

Your voice assistant can now understand and respond in Hindi and English simultaneously, making smart home control and service ordering more accessible.

Amazon has launched its enhanced AI-powered assistant, Alexa+, in India, offering support for Hindi and English conversations. This new version can maintain context for longer periods and handle more complex, multi-step tasks, such as ordering groceries or controlling smart home devices. The service is currently in Early Access for Indian customers. Following this testing phase, Alexa+ will be free for Amazon Prime members and will cost ₹2,000 per month ($20.85) for non-Prime users. The assistant integrates with numerous India-specific services, including food delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato, travel sites like MakeMyTrip, and music services like JioSaavn. This expansion into the Indian market, which has over 600 million Hindi speakers, follows similar launches in other global markets this year, building on Alexa's initial launch in India in 2017 with English support and Hindi in 2019.

The introduction of Alexa+ in India, with its advanced conversational AI and multimodal language support, signifies Amazon's strategic focus on capturing the vast Indian consumer market. By integrating deeply with local services, Amazon aims to make Alexa an indispensable part of daily life for millions, potentially driving increased adoption of its smart devices and e-commerce ecosystem. The tiered pricing model also suggests a strategy to convert casual users into loyal Prime subscribers through enhanced digital assistance.

This move could reshape the competitive landscape for AI assistants in India, challenging existing players and setting a new benchmark for localized, context-aware AI experiences. The success of Alexa+ here may encourage other global tech giants to accelerate their own localization efforts, leading to a more diverse and sophisticated AI assistant market in emerging economies.