is a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
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At CES this week, Bosch announced the launch of its Personal AI Barista, Powered by Alexa Plus, and teased a new AI-powered cooking feature coming to its connected appliances.
Coming to its Bosch 800 Series fully automatic espresso machines, the upgrade allows Alexa users to talk with the machine via an Echo smart speaker “as naturally as speaking to a local barista — customizing drinks, routines, and preferences through conversation,” according to the company.
The 800 Series fully automatic espresso machine works with Bosch’s Home Connect app to integrate with Amazon Alexa and other smart home services. Image: Bosch
The Bosch 800 Series is one of only a couple of countertop coffee makers that work with Alexa voice control. I’ve been testing it and have had some trouble getting Alexa Plus to consistently make a cup of coffee with a voice command.
Before Alexa Plus, asking regular Alexa to make me a coffee based on a routine I set up in the Alexa app mostly worked fine. But since the new assistant arrived, Alexa has been frequently confused.
This is an example of one of the biggest challenges of revamping voice assistants with generative AI. The new versions find it harder to do some of the more straightforward tasks their predecessors excelled at.
On the flip side, they should be able to do a lot more. At one point, it seemed companies hoped the AI would just figure it out on its own, but now they are having to set up individual integrations again, just as they did with the original Alexa.
“Using natural language, users may now control every aspect of the already-advanced espresso machine.”
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