Amazon was forced to lay off the biggest portion of its workforce in its history this year. One of the divisions to be hit the hardest was the devices and Alexa team, building some of the best Echo displays around. It’s becoming increasingly clear why, as it looks like the “Worldwide Digital” division at Amazon is suffering from huge losses, which includes Echo devices and Prime Video, with the future of the Alexa division uncertain.

As reported by internal sources talking to Business Insider, the operating loss of the division lies at about $3 billion in the first quarter of 2022. It’s the most any division within the company is losing. With this data in mind, it looks like Amazon’s usual playbook of subsidizing hardware sales by selling services and other products through them doesn’t play out as well as it was always thought it would.

Sources within the division also told Business Insider that "Alexa is a colossal failure of imagination” and that “it was a wasted opportunity." For a lot of the workers, the direction of the division is also becoming increasingly unclear, as the company apparently doesn't care much about creating enticing devices for consumers anymore: "There's no clear directive for devices. What are we trying to do? Be the best? The cheapest? When that part is not clear, you end up with competing factions."

Despite the layoffs and these revelations, Amazon still says it’s committed to Echo and Alexa devices and that it would continue to invest in them.

Over the years, the company never managed to turn its Echo devices into money-making machines. While it was initially envisioned that people would use Echo smart speakers to purchase products on Amazon, most users seem to stick with simple commands like asking for the weather, turning on or off smart lights, and playing music. It’s likely that Amazon’s controversial move to make its Prime-included Music tier shuffle play only was done in hopes of converting more people to full Amazon Music subscription payers in order to monetize more on Alexa.

With the layoffs and the change of direction in mind, it’s unclear whether we’ll see any meaningful updates to Amazon’s voice assistant or its speakers. The company offered some of the best smart speakers for a long time, but with it not managing to turn the devices into a profitable business, the question remains how long Alexa and Amazon Echo devices are meant to be with us.