Inside Alexa Plus: Amazon's Blake Nussey on Voice AI, Far Field Tech and Building for Australia

Blake Nussey leads at Amazon on Alexa, and he joins Georgie for a deep dive into Alexa Plus, now live in Australia. They cover the shift from rigid voice commands to a true personal assistant powered by over 70 models, and why Amazon built a model agnostic architecture to trade off speed against reasoning depth.The conversation gets personal fast: a customer who broke her leg and called for help through Alexa, Blake's Alexa run wind down routine, and why "don't lead the witness" has become his and Georgie's go to line for settling arguments with a neutral AI referee. They dig into what it actually took to make Alexa understand Australian English (avo, servo and all), the far field listening tech that lets Alexa hear you across a noisy room, and how privacy and trust are engineered in, down to a hardware mute button.They also talk accessibility (Alexa's role for vision impaired and elderly users), kids and voice AI, and Blake's prediction for when voice hits 50% of how we interact with tech. Plus a rapid fire round covering Tesla FSD, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, flat whites, and Jimmethy the raccoon.***Georgies Alexa+ Prompts to Try“Alexa, remember that Imogen can't have dairy”Alexa+ will remember preferences and factor it into recommendations like dinner ideas“Alexa, remember my frequent flyer number is [number].”“Alexa, it’s too hot in here.”Nelly disagrees, but use this with a connected air conditioner to adjust the room temperature“Alexa, every morning at 7, check the weather, recommend what to wear and play the news.”Create a Routine like the corporate athlete you are “Alexa, what happened while I was out?”Alexa+ reviews footage from connected doorbells and cameras like a deliveries***CHAPTERS00:00 – Cold open: FSD and "don't lead the witness"01:18 – Intro: Georgie's honest take on Alexa Plus04:04 – Sponsor: Deel04:22 – Welcome + Blake's favorite AI hack (voice routines + Tesla FSD)06:27 – Most non-AI thing: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu08:30 – Evolution of Alexa to Alexa Plus09:59 – Behind the scenes: how Alexa picks the right model12:51 – Smart home routines and the "corporate athlete" habit15:29 – Alexa recommends a book (the Kindle story)16:25 – Sponsor: Deel17:12 – Building Australian Alexa: colloquialisms and local speech20:58 – What made the Aussie rollout hard22:36 – 2 billion interactions and Australian usage patterns24:32 – Kids and Alexa: safety, kids mode, and development26:44 – Presence, phones, and family dinner table use27:44 – Privacy, trust, and the hardware mute button30:52 – Accessibility: vision impairment, aging, and emergency use34:21 – Near field vs far field: how Alexa actually hears you39:19 – Voice AI hype, predictions, and wearable mic concepts46:17 – Privacy culture, recording etiquette, and Meta glasses48:44 – Rapid fire round55:16 – OutroMentioned in this episode:Deel x BAI_Script 01 - Sep 2026Deel x BAI_Script 02 - Sep 2026