But unlike before, when Alexa was offered for free on any Alexa-enabled devices, customers will have to pay Amazon a monthly fee of $19.99 for the revamped voice assistant, which it calls “Alexa+”. However, the generative-AI powered Alexa will be free for Prime members, who pay the company a monthly or annual fee for free delivery and other perks.

Amazon is aiming to catch up in generative artificial intelligence and to reboot its virtual assistant, which has been leapfrogged by powerful chatbots.

Amazon announced the revamped Alexa+ voice assistant, with “more personalized and conversational” generative-artificial-intelligence features, at a live event Wednesday. It starts rolling out to Echo devices with display next month,