In brief: After revealing the all-new version of Alexa, called Alexa+, back in January, Amazon started rolling out an early access program for the generative AI-driven digital assistant to select users six weeks ago. But is anyone actually trying it? According to a new report, there doesn’t seem to be any Alexa+ users – at least none that can be verified.

In February, Amazon confirmed the long-running rumors that it would be releasing a new Alexa assistant with integrated generative AI capabilities. The company promised it would be able to order groceries and takeouts, book table reservations, and perform complex, multi-step tasks.

More than six weeks ago, Amazon started rolling out Alexa+ to hundreds of thousands of select users, though its initial abilities in this early access program were limited to a few specific tasks. These included summoning an Uber and uploading documents for the AI to summarize and gather information about users’ lives, thereby improving its abilities as an assistant.

But Reuters writes that its search for Alexa+ users has been unsuccessful. The publication searched dozens of news sites, YouTube, TikTok, X, BlueSky and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, as well as Amazon’s Twitch. Even looking through reviews of Echo devices on Amazon proved fruitless.

The only place where Reuters discovered claims of people accessing Alexa+ was on Reddit, where two redditors said they had used the service. However, they did not provide any hard evidence of this and their identities could not be verified.

“Hundreds of thousands of customers now have access to Alexa+ – of course, some are employees and their families, but the overwhelming majority are customers that requested early access,” said an Amazon spokesperson. That’s an increase over the approximately 100,000 users that Amazon said Alexa+ had on May 1.

Amazon declined to comment on the lack of public reviews and reactions to Alexa+. A spokesperson confirmed that using the service did not require signing a nondisclosure agreement.

In April, TechRadar reported on an AMA thread hosted by a Reddit user who appeared to have early access to Alexa+, though evidence of this consisted of a picture of their username written on a piece of tape, attached to the screen of an Amazon Echo Show displaying the words Alexa+ Early Access. “Old Alexa was hot garbage but this new one was a pleasant surprise,” they said.

Avi Greengart, lead analyst at Techsponential, who attended the Alexa+ announcement event, said that the lack of users isn’t unusual in the world of tech.

“This fits a pattern of a lot of companies announcing services or products when they are awfully close to being ready, but not quite – that last mile is a lot farther away than they anticipated,” he said.

Soon after Reuters’ report was published, Amazon started notifying more users who signed up for the Early Access program that they can now activate Alexa+.

Alexa+ will be free for Amazon Prime members when it rolls out fully. Non-subscribers will pay $19.99.