...director, Devices and Services. Hello, Panos.
I'm great. How is your CES so far?
It's pretty amazing. Like, CES has got a bit — I feel like it's got some pretty incredible energy. Do you see that? Like, there's a bit of a resurgence. A lot of tech, of course, but it seems like everything is here.
I do. You can see it. Yeah. I think over the last three years, like it's been subtly and slowly, you know, getting a different vibe in the building. I think it comes with a bit of the tech that's happening. The AI surge is real. There's so many things that kind of come off of that, and we feel it here.
We are talking a lot about AI. Sure. We're going to talk about your CES, but before that, I would like to go back to your two years at Amazon.
You arrived at the end of 2023. After 20 years at Microsoft, you are in charge of devices, so Kindle, Fire TV, and a lot of product and services. Alexa — well, we know a lot about Alexa. What are you the most proud of in the organization?
You know, watching this, like you hear our CEO Andy talk about — Andy Jassy — he talks about, you know, being the world's largest startup. And what does that mean? It means like working at speed, moving at speed, being able to adapt to what the environment needs and, most importantly, what customers need.
When you say, "What am I most proud of?" When you see Amazon, how much it cares for their customers and how much we think about the customer first, it's like when you're making product, that's everything. You just have to think: what does a customer need? You think about it and you deliver to it. That's one. The other is the team that I get to work with, Melinda. I can't quite explain to you. It's amazing. Like, the people are incredible. They're so passionate. We talk about products being a reflection of the people that are creating them, that are making them, and the customers that are using them. We want to reflect, like, who we are. And quite frankly, like, when you have that much passion as a team and that much talent, for me the last two years has been a dream. And plus the portfolio, everything we get to work on — but it comes down to the people.
What was your surprise when you have the large portfolio, the day-one culture?
Yeah. So when you think about it, there's this idea of being the world's largest startup. It also comes with that, exactly as you say, the day-one culture. Like, what is it? Let's move. What's next? How do we deliver for customers? You know, within devices, we do everything from satellites to self-driving cars, from wireless to Alexa to Echo to Kindle, Ring, Blink. And when you see that portfolio, it's not surprising. It's just invigorating. It's exciting.
And that's, you know, the way we do it is we think about we're going to deliver great products for our customers worldwide. You think about France, like one of our best user bases. Our customers here, they love the product. You want to make great products for our customers, but you also want them to connect magically. So when you buy one device from Amazon, or two devices from Amazon, or three devices from Amazon, the more you buy, the more seamless it gets, and the more, really, the easier life becomes because of these products.
Is it easy to have a single narrative? I know you're like that when you're making product — a single narrative with such a large, different kind of teams.
Yeah, I think so, because if you — it's the narrative you say, you know, I like it. When we make products, we talk about we think about one thing and what's the one thing we're going to get right and how clear can we make this for the customer, what they need. I think at the end of the day, it's okay to have either a single narrative or multiple narratives. It just comes down to the one thread, which is what does the customer need and how do we deliver that for the customer.
If you had to summarize your two years at Amazon, your philosophy, the things you bring to Amazon — how would it be?
First off, the word is amazing. It's been tremendous, it's been amazing. However, I would say we want products that fade to the back. We want the details to matter. They need to be beautiful. They have to work seamlessly. But at the end of the day, we want to help people get things done. We want people to accomplish things that they want to accomplish when they pick up our products. And I think we're seeing that right now.
There is a link between a lot of your products — it's Alexa.
When you arrived, we knew that Alexa was powerful but a little bit stagnant. Stagnant. I don't know if I can say that.
You could say it. Well, that's how you think. [laughter] I think it's okay.
The unvarnished truth, right? What were the urgent things you wanted to change to make it better, to make it new, maybe, you know?
You've got hundreds of millions of customers that use Alexa every day. When that's the case, Melinda, you have to be very thoughtful about what you're changing. So, you know, regardless of what word we choose to describe it, people still need it every day in their lives for what they use it for. As a product maker, as a team, we have to respect that. When you talk about thinking about your customer, being customer obsessed — like, what do they love? What do they already do? They've been using Alexa for 10 years. However, it was time. It was time for reinvigoration, for sure. And when AI came down the pipe, when, you know, LLMs started to find their momentum, what we did was we essentially swapped out the entire architecture of the product with ultimately what you would call, in simple terms, AI, and it starts to transform what it does. Alexa Plus coming to Europe. I can't tell you when specifically France.
I'm going to tell you soon. Soon. Like, I can't wait. I can't wait. We actually have beta users — we have beta users in France. But when you use it, it's magical, so it transforms. But here's the thing: with the hundreds of millions of customers that we do have, we take care of them. It does everything you needed it to do. Don't worry, you won't lose that. However, it transforms to a magical experience — any conversation you want, no dead ends, being able to control the devices around you, controlling your home, the services that are attached to it. There is no other product in the world that can do what Alexa does, right? Alexa Plus, and we're super proud of it. And when it gets to France, I can't wait. I can't wait.
I'll be there. I'll see you there. You promise? You'll be in France?
Absolutely. As soon as it arrives. Yeah, I can't wait.
Alexa — you launched, you announced Alexa on the website, right?
What is the difference? What will be the difference? Will it be available worldwide, or will it be the US?
Well, when we come to France, it'll be available in France. So when Alexa Plus comes to France, and ultimately it's exactly what you would hope for — think about kind of a text box or a search box with an LLM or, you know, AI. But it also does everything that Alexa does: creates your lists, manages your recipes, connects to your smart home, connects to other people, creates documents for you — you can upload whatever you need. And then when you get back home, when you come off your PC, you go home, you have a conversation with Alexa, it will remember that conversation. When you go from the conversation in your kitchen and you go to your PC, you can pull it up and you can get into harder work or get into more detail. It's a pretty cool experience.
