Amazon cuts hundreds of jobs in its Alexa unit as it doubles down on layoffs that already total more than 27,000 over the past year
Amazon is cutting hundreds of jobs at the unit that runs its popular Alexa voice assistant as it devotes more resources to artificial intelligence.
In a memo to employees Friday, Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa and Fire TV, wrote that the company was cutting some positions because it was abandoning certain initiatives.
“As we continue to invent, we are shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities and what we know is most important to customers, including maximizing our resources and our efforts focused on Generative AI,” Rausch wrote.
He indicated that “several hundred” positions would be eliminated, but did not give a more precise figure.
Amazon based in Seattle is in fierce competition while other tech companies are rushing to capitalize on the generative AI craze. The company has implemented a slew of AI initiatives in recent months, from integrating the technology into customer reviews to providing services that allow developers to create their own AI tools on its AWS cloud infrastructure.
In September, Amazon revealed an Alexa update this gives it more generative AI capabilities.
The job cuts announced Friday will affect employees in the United States, Canada and India.
This follows more recent layoffs across Amazon’s gaming and music teams, and also adds to the 27,000 employees. the company was fired at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Amazon’s Alexa unit was also affected by these reductions.
