Amazon announces third-quarter 2024 financial results, reports say new Alexa release delayed to 2025

Amazon has announced its financial results for the third quarter (July to September) of 2024. It has also been reported that Amazon is overhauling its voice assistant, Alexa , but it has also been reported that the release of this new Alexa will be delayed until 2025.

Amazon.com, Inc. - Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results
https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2024/Amazon.com-Announces-Third-Quarter-Results/

Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Results | Business Wire
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241030305950/en/

Amazon's cloud unit records highest profit margin in at least a decade
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/31/amazons-cloud-unit-records-highest-profit-margin-in-at-least-a-decade.html

Amazon Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates, Ad Sales Rise 19%
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/amazon-earnings-ad-sales-rise-prime-video-1236196493/

Amazon announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2024 (July to September) on October 31, 2024 local time. According to this, total sales in the third quarter of 2024 increased 11% year-on-year to $158.9 billion (approximately 24.16 trillion yen), operating profit increased 55% year-on-year to $17.4 billion (approximately 2.65 trillion yen), and net profit increased 55% year-on-year to $15.3 billion (approximately 2.33 trillion yen).

Particularly strong was Amazon's cloud service AWS, with AWS's sales reaching $27.45 billion (approximately 4.17 trillion yen). AWS's AI division sales have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said, 'We have more demand than we can meet, even if we had higher production capacity,' and 'I don't think that we, or almost any other company, have the production capacity to meet the demand. The area where companies can increase supply is mainly in the chip sector.' AWS recorded an operating profit of $10.45 billion (approximately 1.59 trillion yen), accounting for 60% of Amazon's overall operating profit.

Meanwhile, Amazon's advertising revenue increased 19% year-on-year to $14.3 billion (approximately 2.18 trillion yen). According to Amazon, advertising revenue includes sales of advertising services sold to sellers, vendors, publishers, and authors through programs such as sponsored ads, display ads, and video ads. Amazon only started displaying ads on Amazon Prime Video in January 2024. Amazon Prime Video subscription revenue increased 11% year-on-year to $11.3 billion (approximately 1.72 trillion yen).

Advertisements start being distributed on Amazon Prime Video, what is the length of the ads and Amazon's revenue prospects? - GIGAZINE

Amazon has announced strong financial results, but Bloomberg reports that the release date of its new Alexa, ' Remarkable Alexa ,' which the company is developing to compete with ChatGPT, has been postponed from October 2024 to 2025.

New Amazon Alexa AI Is Stuck in the Lab Till It Can Outsmart ChatGPT - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-30/new-amazon-alexa-ai-is-stuck-in-the-lab-till-it-can-outsmart-chatgpt

Amazon's supercharged Alexa won't arrive this year - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/31/24284772/amazon-new-alexa-llm-voice-assistant-delayed-2025

According to information obtained by Bloomberg from a person familiar with the matter, the Alexa AI team has delayed the release of the new Alexa until 2025. The new Alexa is expected to be able to have natural conversational interactions like ChatGPT. However, in June 2024, Fortune reported that 'the new Alexa may not be completed by the end of the year,' making this more certain.

Amazon had been offering access to the new Alexa beta for its smart home device, the Echo, but at the time of writing, Amazon has blocked access to it. Previously, you could access the new Alexa beta just by saying, 'Alexa, let's chat,' but at the time of writing, it responds, 'Chat is no longer available. For now, you can ask me questions, set timers, play music, and turn on connected lights.'

Users who had access to the new Alexa beta said that responses were 'slow, clunky, and unhelpful.' Additionally, the new Alexa beta messed up smart home integrations and even caused hallucinations. One tester said, 'The ongoing hallucinations weren't necessarily wrong, they were just unnecessary, as if Alexa was trying to show off its newfound abilities. For example, when I asked Alexa, 'What halftime show featured Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson?', she would sometimes answer, 'Super Bowl 2004. ' Now, she's just as likely to give a lengthy follow-up about the infamous costume disaster.'

The Alexa AI team is struggling to integrate large language models (LLMs) with the voice assistant's command-and-control method. According to Bloomberg, using pre-trained AI models allows Alexa to answer more complex questions, but it's more likely to fail when trying to set a kitchen timer or control smart lights.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said publicly that ' we continue to reinvent Alexa ,' but there is little information about what kind of experience LLM-enabled Alexa will bring to users, other than making it possible to have more natural conversations. More importantly, it is unclear whether the new Alexa can be realized without compromising the existing Alexa functionality that users use every day.

Amazon has appointed Panos Panay, former head of Microsoft's Surface division, as the new head of its Devices and Services division, which will lead the development of Alexa.