Amazon Says It Has Over 10,000 Employees Working on Alexa, Echo

By Douglas MacMillan

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- Amazon.com Inc. has more than 10,000 employees working on its Alexa virtual assistant and the Echo devices it powers, the executive in charge of the business said, double the staff in that division a little more than a year ago.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's WSJ Tech D.Live conference on Tuesday, Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices, outlined new areas where Alexa can expand in the coming years, including in hotel rooms.

Mr. Limp said Amazon chose New York City and Northern Virginia for new office locations partly because of the availability of talent.

"The tie went to where we could recruit," Mr. Limp said.

Amazon currently has a total of more than 600,000 workers. The company said in Sept. 2017 it had 5,000 employees working on Alexa and Echo.

In response to a question about President Trump's tariffs, Mr. Limp called the measures "a tax on customers."

Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2018 14:59 ET (19:59 GMT)

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