Amazon hires founders of AI startup Adept to lead its push into AI-powered work automation

Amazon has hired the co-founders of AI agent startup Adept in a move to bolster its artificial intelligence capabilities and enhance its AI-powered work automation efforts. Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan will join Amazon, along with Adept co-founders Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, Erich Elsen, and Kelsey Szot, and other Adept employees, according to Geekwire’s Taylor Soper who first reported the news.

Adept also confirmed in a blog post that its co-founders and several team members are joining Amazon’s AGI organization to continue their mission of building useful general intelligence.

“Adept co-founders and some of the team are joining Amazon’s AGI organization to continue to pursue the mission of building useful general intelligence. Amazon is also licensing Adept’s agent technology, family of state-of-the-art multimodal models, and a few datasets,” the company said.

As part of the deal, Adept will also license its cutting-edge AI models and datasets to Amazon. Adept will continue its operations under the leadership of Zach Brock, the new CEO and head of engineering, the company said in a statement on its website.

“Zach Brock, Head of Engineering, will be taking over as Adept’s CEO. Zach has over 15 years of experience building software products and leading teams at companies both large and small. He’s been a successful entrepreneur and CEO before, as well as a leader in SMB and Enterprise software organizations.”

Despite the transition of several key members to Amazon, Adept is not ceasing its operations. Instead, it is shifting its focus to “solutions that enable agentic AI.” The startup, which has been in acquisition discussions with Meta and Microsoft, sees this deal as a lifeline to continue its mission. Microsoft had previously invested in Adept, highlighting its potential in the AI landscape.

For Amazon, this acquisition is a strategic boost to its generative AI ambitions. The infusion of Adept’s talent and technology is expected to accelerate Amazon’s development of AI-driven digital agents. David Luan will work under Rohit Prasad, Amazon’s former Alexa head, who is now leading a new AGI (artificial general intelligence) team focused on building advanced language models.

“David and his team’s expertise in training state-of-the-art multimodal foundational models and building real-world digital agents aligns with our vision to delight consumer and enterprise customers with practical AI solutions,” Prasad stated in a memo to employees. “This licensing agreement will expedite our roadmap for developing digital agents capable of automating software workflows.”

Amazon has been striving to keep up with competitors in the AI space, developing new services and investing in AI startups like Anthropic. The company is also planning to revamp its Alexa voice assistant with generative AI features. Prasad, who previously served as the head scientist for Alexa, was appointed in August to steer Amazon’s AGI development.

Founded in 2018 by David Luan, Adept is known for its development of AI-powered agents designed to perform various software-based tasks. Using natural language processing (NLP) technology, Adept provides AI-powered solutions for businesses, helping them automate various tasks and improve operational efficiency. This acquisition marks a notable milestone in Amazon’s journey to advance its AI capabilities and compete more effectively in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.