Amazon adds new grocery tools to Alexa

Alexa+ can order groceries from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, track purchase history, and remember recipes and dietary preferences – Grocery Dive reported.

Amazon is looking to its Alexa technology to enhance its digital grocery shopping experience.

The technology company introduced Alexa+ at the end of February, tapping generative AI to give the Alexa capability more personal assistant tools for users.

Along with a slew of new features, Alexa+ can order groceries from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market for users as well as place delivery orders from Grubhub and Uber Eats. In addition, the technology tracks past purchases. Users can also ask Alexa+ “to remember things that will make the experience more useful” such as recipes and dietary preferences, per the press release.

While Amazon’s revamp of its Amazon Fresh supermarket chain has focused on going back to the basics of grocery shopping, relying less on flashy in-store technology and more on product assortment, this move taps the digital and omnichannel experiences Amazon has mastered across other areas of its business.

Alexa+ is free for Prime members and $19.99 per month for nonmembers, per the announcement. The feature will be available on a new mobile app and on a new browser-based experience on Alexa.com. Amazon’s Echo devices will also have access to the new AI technology.

As of Feb. 26, Amazon said the technology would begin rolling out across the U.S. in the coming weeks during an early access period and then in waves over the next few months.