Amazon has begun laying off several hundred jobs in its Alexa division as part of a broader belt-tightening effort across the company, the company confirmed on Friday. This move comes as Amazon shifts its resources and efforts towards generative AI, according to a memo sent Daniel Rausch, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa and Fire TV. The company did not specify which Alexa initiatives it’s winding down as a result of the job cuts.
Affected employees in the U.S. and Canada will be notified on Friday, with those in India being notified next week. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been focused on cost-cutting since last year due to an economic downturn and slowing growth in its core retail business, initiating the largest layoffs in its history and axing unprofitable initiatives.
Amazon has made significant investments in Alexa since its launch in 2014, hiring top talent to grow the technology at the direction of Jeff Bezos. However, the company now faces competition from generative AI and chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Amazon teased updates tied to generative AI for Alexa in September, indicating a shift in the company’s focus.
Despite the job cuts, Rausch said Amazon remains “encouraged the progress we’re making with Alexa,” noting that users interact with the virtual assistant “tens of millions of times every hour,” and there are more than 500 million Alexa devices in consumers’ homes.
The move to cut jobs in the Alexa division comes after the company initiated layoffs in its devices and services division, reflecting a broader shift in Amazon’s business priorities and technological developments.