TECH - Amazon Phases Out Developer Incentives Embraces AI to Revitalize Alexa's Competitive Edge (Updated) | Benzinga
Editor’s Note: The story has been updated with Amazon’s response in paragraph 5
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) will discontinue its Alexa Developer Rewards Program, which previously paid creators of popular Alexa applications monthly, by the end of June.
This move marks a significant shift in Amazon’s strategy towards its voice-activated digital assistant platform.
In addition, Amazon is phasing out a support program offering free Amazon Web Services credits to Alexa developers.
However, developers will still have the opportunity to earn through in-app purchases, according to a Bloomberg report.
“These are older programs launched back in 2017 as a way to help newer developers interested in building skills accelerate their progress. Today, there are over 160,000 skills available for customers, a well-established Alexa developer community, and new LLM-powered tools that will help developers build ...