Amazon Cuts Workers In Alexa's Voice Assistant Unit, Focuses On Generative AI

Alexa is a multi-functional voice assistant from Amazon.com (photo:amazon.co.jp)

Amazon.com announced on Friday 17 November that it was cutting workers in its Alexa voice assistant unit. They argued there was a shift in business priorities and a greater emphasis on generative artificial intelligence.

The cuts affected several hundred employees working on Alexa. A spokesman declined to provide details about the exact number affected.

"We are shifting some of our efforts to better suit our business priorities, and what we know is very important to customers - which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative artificial intelligence," Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, said in an email to Reuters. "This change led us to stop some initiatives."

Amazon has stepped down from various divisions this month, including in its music and gaming divisions as well as some of the roles of human resources. Although most of the affected work is in the device division, some of which work on Alexa-related products in different units, a spokesperson said. Many companies switch resources to generative artificial intelligence, which can create software codes and long-text responses from short prompts.

Alexa is a voice assistant that can be used to set a timer, search, play music, or as a home automation center.

Morale in the device division reportedly declined in September due to concerns about a lack of product innovation. Some people familiar with the matter pointed to voice assistant Alexa, now nearly a decade old, as a product that has failed to compete in the era of generative artificial intelligence.

Amazon stated at the time that "assuming some anecdotes creates a real picture for organizations as large as and as diverse as Devices and Services is inaccurate," and that they still support their products.

Amazon has said its device and service business is unfavorable. Unfortunately they don't give specific figures.

Just last month, the device unit got a new head, Total Panay, who joined the company from Microsoft, replacing David Limp, a 13-year-old veteran who will be leaving the company later this year to lead Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket company. Panay previously supervised the development of the Surface tablet.

Amazon is struggling to make a profit from Alexa, which is widely used via Echo speakers or video screens. Most of the efforts to make money from it focus on facilitating purchases from Amazon.com.

Amazon's voice assistant products compete with offerings from Alphabet and Apple.

Amazon has cut more than 27,000 workers across the company over the past year, as part of a wave of layoffs in the US tech industry after the industry recruited many people during the pandemic.

This latest cut in work comes despite Amazon reporting a third-quarter net profit that far exceeds analyst estimates and projects revenue in the last quarter of this year is in line with expectations. The fourth quarter is the most crucial for Amazon, as it includes holiday shopping.

Rausch also stated that he remains optimistic about Alexa's future. "Combining a new big language model into voice-based private AI is a huge scientific and engineering challenge and continues," he wrote.