Bosch’s premium coffee maker gets Alexa Plus

At CES this week, Bosch announced the launch of the Personal AI Barista, powered by Alexa Plus, and teased a new AI-powered cooking feature coming to its connected devices.

Coming to her Bosch 800 series fully automatic espresso machinesThe upgrade allows Alexa users to talk to the device via an Echo smart speaker “as naturally as talking to a local barista — personalizing drinks, routines, and preferences through conversation,” according to the company.

The Bosch 800 series is one of the few countertop coffee makers that works with Alexa voice control. I tested it and had some trouble getting Alexa Plus to consistently make a cup of coffee using a voice command.

Before Alexa Plus, asking regular Alexa to bring me coffee based on a routine I set up in the Alexa app was mostly fine. But since the new assistant arrived, Alexa has often become confused.

This is an example of one of the biggest challenges of revamping voice assistants with generative AI. New releases find it difficult to do Some more obvious tasks Their predecessors excelled at this.

On the other hand, they should be able to do more. At one point, companies seemed to hope that AI could solve the problem on its own, but now they have to set up individual integrations again, just like they did with the original Alexa.

Bosch says the engineering teams at Bosch and Amazon “worked extensively to fully integrate Alexa Plus” with these new capabilities. The company says that when it launches, you should be able to control every aspect of the espresso machine:

“Using natural language, users can now control every aspect of a truly advanced espresso machine to craft and optimize their daily coffee routine. The AI ​​assistant leverages its extensive knowledge base, coupled with machine learning, to pass the command to the espresso machine.”

The routine I set up with the old Alexa required me to select a specific drink type when I programmed it, limiting myself to that type, or I had to set up multiple routines for each drink I might want to make. With this new Alexa Plus upgrade, it’s like if I should ask it to make any drink from its extensive library, it will know what to do.

This certainly sounds more like the experience you’ve come to expect with Alexa Plus. I’m looking forward to testing this when the integration starts.

Bosch introduces cooking using artificial intelligence in its appliances

Along with the AI ​​capabilities of its coffee machine, Bosch is debuting the Bosch Cook AI device at CES. The company says this is “a new smart solution that combines powerful AI, Bosch’s proprietary hardware technologies, sensors and a unique user experience within the Home Connect app.”

Bosch Cook AI is designed to provide direct guidance through the Home Connect app as you prepare and cook to help you prepare more complex meals, such as “cooking multiple steaks at different levels of doneness, simultaneously.” The system can also “intelligently coordinate multiple Bosch devices side-by-side,” according to the company.

Bosch will be showing this at CES, and I’ll be on the show floor to check it out.