David Limp, Amazon’s chief of hardware, stated that the business had not abandoned its voice Assistant Alexa, despite the fact that the team responsible for the technology has been a primary target of the largest layoffs in the history of the company.
In response to the worsening economic outlook and the de accelerating growth of sales, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s initiated a more extensive move last year to cut spending, which included the beginning of the company’s practice of laying off employees throughout its whole corporate staff.
The company’s devices and services business, which is responsible for the creation of products such as Echo smart speakers, Kindle e-readers, and Alexa, was also among the groups that were affected.
Limb told in an interview that as a result of the downsizing, about 2000 individuals in his department have been let go as a result of the restructuring.
He further added that the firm intends to cut more than 18,000 employees, mostly in its human resources and stores departments. As per sources, around 10000 personnel would be laid off.
Despite all these terminations, the firm has put a hold on its hiring process and put a hold on its more experimental projects, like it’s a video calling device for children and telehealth services.
Limp said we looked at initiatives where the risk/reward balance wasn’t quite there because of the degree of uncertainty, and the potential value to clients was low. Some of it was in Alexa, and some of it was in other sections of our business.
Although the company is taking measures to be more cost-conscious in a very uncertain economy, Limp assured investors that the firm is fully committed to the Alexa unit.
