Amazon boosts AI strategy by acquiring Adept co-founders and key team members

Amazon has recently hired the co-founders and several team members from AI startup Adept in a strategic move to bolster its AI capabilities. Adept’s CEO David Luan and other key employees have joined Amazon. At the same time, the startup will continue to operate independently, with Amazon paying a licensing fee to use some of its technology to automate business functions.

The recruitment is similar to Microsoft’s earlier hiring of Inflection AI’s team, which has drawn regulatory scrutiny. Adept, valued at over $1 billion, has already named a new CEO. Amazon’s recruitment of Adept’s team signals its ambition to advance AI agent tools, an area of focus for major tech labs. The company is also working to update its Alexa voice assistant with generative AI for more complex and responsive interactions.

At Amazon, Luan and others will report to Rohit Prasad, who leads the company’s artificial general intelligence efforts. Previously head of Alexa, Prasad has integrated researchers across Amazon to enhance AI model training. He stated that these new hires will significantly contribute to Amazon’s pursuit of achieving AGI.