- Amazon is set to unveil an AI-enhanced Alexa upgrade that could boost publisher exposure.
- Amazon is negotiating licensing deals with publishers for the new feature, people familiar told BI.
- Some publishers are banking on exposure via Alexa as traffic from other tech platforms has declined.
Amazon is expected to unveil an AI-enhanced upgrade to its Alexa voice tech at an event in New York on Wednesday, and some publishers hope it will lead to broader exposure for their outlets.
As part of the work behind the scenes, Amazon is hammering out licensing deals with publishers to showcase their news and information in the feature, two people familiar with the talks told Business Insider. They asked for anonymity to discuss private deals; their identities are known to BI. Axios previously reported that Amazon had been reaching out to publishers.
Amazon has also held talks with companies such as Uber, Instacart, and Ticketmaster for the feature, BI previously reported.
Under the proposed terms of these new media deals, users of Amazon devices could hear content from a publisher read aloud when they ask Alexa for information on an Echo smart speaker, or see publisher citations with links on the Echo Show, the version with a screen.
Some publishers told BI they hoped the upgrade would be a big improvement over their earlier experience with Amazon’s voice assistant. Alexa, which launched in 2014, hasn’t lived up to expectations in recent years, as BI has previously reported. Publishers and other companies were encouraged to create Alexa skills, or shortcuts that let users perform tasks like shopping or getting news, but engagement with them was generally poor.
Publishers see an opportunity here, even if smart speakers have underwhelmed as a category. Facebook and Google search have deprioritized news, and publishers are looking for traffic anywhere they can get it. According to Amazon, Alexa is installed on more than 100 million devices, a sizable audience for publishers to get in front of.
One publishing exec told BI that Amazon was paying “good” but not significant money to feature publisher content, but stressed that the biggest benefit was the ability to up their exposure in Amazon’s sprawling ecosystem.
AI deals have been a way for publishers to offset declines in audience and advertising while letting AI companies use their content to answer queries and train their tech. OpenAI, for example, has signed deals with companies like News Corp. and Business Insider parent Axel Springer.
