Amazon is expanding its AI-powered digital assistant Alexa+ with new features. The company announced Thursday that starting in 2026, it will add four new integrations to the service that will allow Assistant to work with Angi, Expedia, Square, and Yelp.
These additional features allow customers to book hotels, get quotes for in-home services, make salon reservations, and more. With Expedia, customers can compare, book, and manage hotel reservations, and get personalized recommendations by telling Alexa their preferences. (Example: “Can you find me a pet-friendly hotel in Chicago this weekend?”)
The new service joins existing integrations between Alexa+ and Fodor, OpenTable, Suno, Ticketmaster, Thumbtack, and Uber.
Similar to how ChatGPT is currently integrating apps into chatbots, Amazon aims to make it easier for consumers to use a variety of online services through its digital assistant. For example, you can ask Alexa to call you an Uber or reserve a table for dinner with OpenTable.
You can also talk to your AI assistant in natural language and tailor your requests as you interact.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether users will accept this idea.
However, Amazon offered a small glimpse into how early adopters of Alexa+ are using the integration, noting that so far home and personal service providers like Thumbtack and Vagaro have shown “strong” engagement.
Using AI assistants as app platforms is a model being tested across the industry as another way to bring AI more broadly to consumers. However, many users are accustomed to consuming online services through the web or mobile apps, so this requires adapting to new ways of doing things. To be successful in changing consumer behavior, the use of AI-mediated apps must be seen as being as easy, if not easier, than existing models.
For this to work, AI providers must at least match the breadth of online services offered by traditional app stores. App stores already have a more selective selection than what’s available via the web. Alternatively, users may perceive unwanted prompts as ads, so providers need to be very good at suggesting apps to use at the right time without seeming overly intrusive.
