New York: Global company Amazon is eliminating hundreds of jobs from the operations division of its popular ‘voice assistant’ Alexa. The company plans to focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), under which this step has been taken. Daniel Roush, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa and Fire TV, said in a letter to its workers on Friday that the company is eliminating some positions.
Tough competition with tech companies
Roush wrote that as we continue to innovate, we are shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities. He said that a few hundred posts would be abolished. However, he did not give any specific numbers. Seattle-based Amazon is in tough competition with other tech companies in the race to get ahead in the generic AI segment.
Amazon is cutting ‘several hundred’ jobs in its Alexa voice assistant unit. The company said the move is in response to shifting business priorities and a greater focus on generative artificial intelligence pic.twitter.com/PEs4iOkWes
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 18, 2023
AI implementing initiatives company
The company has been implementing several AI initiatives over the past few months. These range from incorporating the technology into customer reviews to providing services that let developers build their own AI tools on their AWS cloud infrastructure. In September, Amazon unveiled an update to Alexa that packed it with more generative AI features.
27,000 employees laid off
The job cuts announced on Friday will affect employees in the US, Canada and India. Earlier, Amazon has made layoffs in its gaming and music segments. The company laid off 27,000 workers late last year and early this year. Amazon’s Alexa unit was also affected by the cut.
