Amazon decides to eliminate salary benefits for Alexa developers. The company confirmed to Engadget on Wednesday that it will end its Alexa Developer Rewards program at the end of June. A second program that rewards developers for using Amazon Web Services as the backend for Alexa apps will also end at the same time.
With the advent of generative artificial intelligence, third-party applications (“skills”) for Pioneer’s voice assistant appear to be less of the company’s focus.The news was first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Engadget with the company.
Amazon described the move as an example of phasing out an older project that had reached the end of its rope. “These are older programs launched in 2017 to help new developers interested in building their skills accelerate their progress,” an Amazon spokesperson wrote in a letter to Engadget. “Today, customers have access to more than 160,000 skills, complete Alexa Developer Community and new tools powered by LLM that will help developers build new experiences for Alexa. These older programs have served their purpose, so we have decided to retire them.”
The company told me the program was launched while developers were still learning to make voice apps, and was designed to help them get started. Amazon told Engadget that less than one percent of developers are using the program. Alexa developers will still be paid for their Alexa skills through in-app purchases, the company said, adding that the cost of making these skills has dropped while developer knowledge has increased.
The Alexa Developer Rewards Program is designed to incentivize developers who create high-quality skills for the assistant. Launched in 2017, when Alexa was all the rage, the program pays developers bonuses for skills that reach participation thresholds in specific categories. It’s part of Amazon’s burgeoning app store that sought to turn Alexa Skills into a new generation of voice-first devices, a vision that never fully materialized.
Now, the renewed interest in AI assistants is about generative AI, which can handle many of the same tasks as Alexa skills (and in some cases maybe better). At its Fall 2023 Devices event, Amazon previewed a next-generation version of Alexa with ChatGPT-like generative artificial intelligence capabilities. The company is also gradually integrating next-generation technology into its seller tools and product pages.
Bloomberg There are reports that third-party apps don’t make Amazon a lot of money (not surprising given today’s news). The company cut funding available for Alexa developer payments in 2020. Late last year, Amazon also laid off hundreds of employees in its Alexa division. Google, meanwhile, threw in the towel early: It phased out third-party voice apps for Google Assistant entirely in 2022.
