Amazon is reportedly working on a more powerful agentic Alexa assistant

Published 8 July 2026 · tech

Amazon is reportedly working on an updated version of Alexa that would expand on the capabilities of its existing Alexa+ assistant. Business Insider claims to

Amazon is reportedly working on an updated version of Alexa that would expand on the capabilities of its existing Alexa+ assistant. Business Insider claims to have seen internal planning documents that detail a project codenamed Moonraker, which is designed to handle more complex interactions that contain multiple simultaneous requests. The main focus of Moonraker seems to be building out Alexa's agentic abilities. In the documents seen by Business Insider, listed examples include asking the assistant to book a ride and text a friend in a single interaction. It's a move that would enable Alexa to better compete with agentic AI models from the likes of Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.

The other key takeaway from Amazon's plans is the cost of such an endeavor. They projected GPU costs of more than $100 million in 2026, and the document also suggested either delaying or scaling back Moonraker's ambitions. Business Insider was told by someone familiar with the matter that some senior people within Amazon think the company has spent too much on the AI models that power the current iteration of Alexa. The publication also claims to have seen a separate document from late 2025 that detail Amazon's plans to use "hundreds" of NVIDIA GPUs to power the Moonraker project, as well as an Anthropic Sonnet model for testing advanced reasoning and visual responses.

Alexa+ only officially launched nationwide in the US at the beginning of 2026, and in countries like the UK it remains in Early Access. The rollout hasn't been entirely smooth, with a number of users reporting issues with the assistant handling basic requests that they had not encountered with previous versions. In her own early impressions review last year, Engadget's Cherlynn Low was impressed with Alexa+'s improved conversational abilities, but noted that it would often struggle with remembering previous conversations and requests when using apps like Uber. Despite the new Moonraker leaks, Amazon appears to be committed to building out Alexa+'s features.

Back in February it introduced three new personality styles that let you customize how the AI assistant interacts with you. A "sassy" option arrived later, which gives Alexa a foul-mouthed makeover. A few months ago, Amazon also added natural language food delivery orders through apps such as GrubHub and Uber Eats.