Amazon’s ambitions to profit from its Alexa-enabled devices have reportedly fallen short, resulting in losses exceeding $25 billion from 2017 to 2021. The Wall Street Journal highlighted findings from internal documents and unnamed sources, revealing that despite having hundreds of millions of customers, Amazon’s Echo speakers are primarily used for basic functions like setting alarms rather than for shopping.
A former senior Amazon employee expressed frustration, stating, “We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer.” In response to these challenges, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is exploring solutions, which may include a subscription model for the voice assistant. However, some engineers within the company are skeptical about whether this approach will yield significant outcomes.
An Amazon spokesperson emphasized the company’s focus on delivering value through its services rather than solely through device sales, asserting that their Devices & Services division has established several profitable enterprises.
In addition, Amazon’s newly introduced AI-powered Alexa, showcased in September, is reportedly not ready for deployment, according to former employees. Issues with data access and the necessary technology for the large language model (LLM) have hindered progress. The company has shifted its focus towards developing generative AI for its cloud service, Amazon Web Services, rather than concentrating on the AI-enhanced version of Alexa.
Amazon has contested the claims made by former employees, stating that they are misinformed about the status of its Alexa AI advancements and that the Amazon Artificial General Intelligence team has access to the necessary technology for development. The company’s ongoing goal for Alexa remains to create the best personal assistant available.