Amazon Announced Layoffs in Alexa Voice Assistant Unit to Focus on Gen AI

Amazon.com on Friday introduced it’s trimming jobs at its Alexa voice assistant unit, citing shifting enterprise priorities and a higher focus on generative artificial intelligence.

The cuts have an effect on a number of hundred workers working on Alexa, in accordance to the e-mail. A spokeswoman declined to elaborate on precisely what number of have been affected.

“We’re shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers — which includes maximising our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” Daniel Rausch, vp of Alexa and Fire TV, stated in the e-mail. “These shifts are leading us to discontinue some initiatives.”

Amazon has been pulling again in a wide range of divisions this month, together with in its music and gaming divisions and a few human sources roles. 

While a lot of the jobs affected have been in the gadgets division, a number of have been working on Alexa-related merchandise in a distinct unit, a spokeswoman stated. Many corporations are shifting sources to generative AI, which may create software program code and prolonged textual content responses from quick prompts.

Alexa is a voice assistant that can be utilized to set timers, ask search queries, play music, or as a house automation hub.

Reuters reported in September that morale in the gadgets division had suffered over issues about what some seen as a weak product pipeline. In explicit, individuals acquainted with the matter pointed to the Alexa voice assistant, now almost a decade previous, as having failed to hold tempo in the age of generative synthetic intelligence. 

Amazon stated on the time that “to suggest that a few anecdotes paint a picture of reality for an organization as large and diverse as Devices and Services is inaccurate,” and that it stood by its merchandise.

Amazon has stated its gadgets and companies enterprise will not be worthwhile, with out offering figures.

Only final month the gadget unit obtained a brand new chief, Panos Panay, who joined the corporate from Microsoft, changing David Limp, a 13-year veteran who’s leaving later this yr to head Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket firm. Panay had overseen improvement of the Surface pill.

Amazon has struggled to generate any income from Alexa, which many individuals use by means of Echo audio system or video screens. Most efforts to earn cash from it have centered on easing buying from Amazon.com.

The Seattle-based on-line retailer’s voice assistant merchandise compete with choices from Alphabet and Apple.

Amazon has reduce greater than 27,000 jobs throughout the corporate over the previous yr, a part of a wave of US tech layoffs after the trade employed closely individuals through the pandemic. 

The newest cuts come whilst Amazon reported third-quarter internet revenue that far exceeded analyst estimates and forecast income in the yr’s last quarter roughly in line with expectations. The fourth quarter is Amazon’s most vital, because it contains vacation procuring.

In the e-mail, Rausch stated he remained optimistic about Alexa. 

“Incorporating a new large language model into a voice-forward, personal AI, has been and continues to be an enormous scientific and engineering challenge,” he wrote, utilizing one other time period for generative AI.

© Thomson Reuters 2023