This week on the GeekWire Podcast: A conversation with Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Echo, recorded at the company’s Seattle headquarters.

Rausch explained the company’s vision for Alexa+, Amazon's next-generation voice assistant, in advance of its upcoming rollout through an early access program. Alexa+ promises more fluid conversations with users, integrating with more services and devices for new capabilities, including the ability act autonomously on behalf of a user.

It's a significant upgrade for Amazon's longtime voice assistant, judging from the live demos that Rausch walked us through before and after the podcast recording.

But it remains to be seen how much value people will find in using their voice in those situations, rather than the tried-and-true simplicity of using a smartphone app or web browser. And at a fundamental level, Amazon is playing catch-up with OpenAI's ChatGPT and many other AI chatbots in the world of conversational artificial intelligence.

Related links:

• What Alexa’s AI upgrade means for Amazon’s business and Alexa users
• Amazon’s new Alexa+ uses generative AI to personalize conversations and automate tasks

With GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop; Edited by Curt Milton