Amazon's Panos Panay: The Reality of Building Alexa Plus and AI Assistants

Big Technology Podcast

Alex Kantrowitz

Technology, Religion & Spirituality, Business News, Business, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Management, Marketing, Politics, News Commentary, Government, Investing, Tech News, Social Sciences, News

4.6 • 395 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Panos Panay is Amazon’s head of Devices & Services. Panay returns to Big Technology Podcast to discuss Alexa Plus's delayed rollout, when the assistant is releasing to everyone, and the challenge of building these products. Tune in for specifics on compatibility, usage spikes, and what “day one” means when you have hundreds of millions of customers. We also cover the future of computing, from phones to wearables and home devices. Hit play for a grounded look at what’s real now—and what’s coming next. --- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b Questions? Feedback? Write to: [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Where is Alexa Plus and how is the battle to bring you a personalized AI assistant shaping up?
0:05.7	We'll talk about it with Amazon's head of devices and services right after this.
0:10.4	Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI.
0:15.0	They already deployed one.
0:16.9	It's called chat concierge and it's simplifying car shopping.
0:21.2	Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks,
0:25.6	it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.
0:28.9	It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing,
0:33.0	and estimate trade and value.
0:35.2	Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's
0:39.8	technology at Capital One. Welcome to Big Technology Podcast, a show for cool-headed and nuanced
0:45.6	conversation of the tech world and beyond. We're joined today by Panos Penae, the head of devices
0:51.4	and services at Amazon, who is here in studio with us to talk about
0:56.2	the state of Alexa Plus, where the battle of AI assistance is heading, and plenty more.
1:02.4	It's great to see you, Panois. Welcome back to the show.
1:04.1	Thanks, man. It's great to see you, too.
1:05.9	So we spoke last in the spring.
1:09.3	It's February probably, yeah, March?
1:10.5	March, when you just had your March event. And the promise at that event... We spoke last in the spring. It's February probably, yeah, March? March.
1:11.6	Was it March?
1:12.6	And the promise at that event was within a month we were going to see Alexa Plus.
1:18.6	Yeah.
	...

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