**In This Update** A decade after gaining prominence with its voice assistant, Alexa, Amazon (AMZN+7. 09%) appears to be facing challenges as it transitions into the era of generative artificial intelligence. During the third-quarter earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy mentioned that the company is in the process of “rearchitecting the brain” of its voice assistant through a series of next-generation foundation models—larger models trained on extensive, generalized data sets. “When we first embarked on the Alexa project, our vision was for it to be the world’s premier personal assistant, something many considered an ambitious goal, ” said David Fildes, Amazon's vice president of investor relations. “Looking at the developments in generative AI over the past couple of years, it would be a mistake to dismiss the prospect of reaching that goal. It is undoubtedly going to happen. ” By revamping Alexa with these foundation models, Fildes believes Amazon has “the chance to become the leader” in the forthcoming generation of voice assistants and generative AI applications. According to him, this next generation will not only excel at answering queries and summarizing information but will also be capable of taking actions. Jassy indicated that Amazon plans to share the new models with customers soon and is “increasingly integrating more AI into all of our devices, ” including the Kindle. However, the company did not provide further details regarding its release plans in an email to Quartz. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Alexa AI's anticipated release has been delayed due to technical hurdles, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

One source revealed that the Alexa AI teams were recently informed that their new target deadline is now 2025. In June, Fortune reported that the AI-enhanced Alexa—which Amazon showcased in September and announced would be available for a free preview on its Alexa-enabled devices in the U. S. —is still far from completion. Former employees told the publication that the company lacks sufficient data and access to the necessary chips for running the large language model (LLM) that powers the new version. Additionally, it has reportedly deprioritized Alexa AI in favor of developing generative AI for its cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services. Amazon responded by stating that these former employees are mistaken and uninformed about the current status of its Alexa AI efforts, affirming that the Amazon Artificial General Intelligence team has access to both its in-house Trainium chips and Nvidia’s (NVDA+2. 90%) graphics processing units (GPUs). “We have already begun integrating generative AI into various aspects of Alexa and are working diligently on scaling implementation across over half a billion ambient, Alexa-enabled devices, ” an Amazon spokesperson previously stated to Quartz. “We are thrilled about our ongoing developments and eagerly anticipate delivering them to our customers. ”