Amazon Secures Top Talent from AI Startup Adept

Amazon has successfully attracted key talent from Adept, an innovative AI startup known for developing agents that perform software-based tasks. Adept has agreed to license its technology to Amazon, resulting in several of its co-founders and team members joining the e-commerce giant.

Geekwire's Taylor Soper first reported the development. According to Soper, Adept's co-founder and CEO, David Luan, will transition to Amazon, along with co-founders Augustus Odena, Maxwell Nye, Erich Elsen, Kelsey Szot, and other key employees. Despite these changes, Adept will continue its operations. Zach Brock, previously head of engineering, will take over as CEO, refocusing efforts on agentic AI solutions.

“Our products will continue to be powered by our state-of-the-art in-house AI models, agentic data, web interaction software, and custom infrastructure,” Adept stated on its official blog. The company highlighted the challenges of balancing fundraising for foundational models while advancing their agent vision.

This agreement provides a crucial opportunity for Adept, which has been in acquisition talks with Meta and Microsoft. Amazon benefits from acquiring top talent and technology to bolster its generative AI initiatives. Luan will work under Rohit Prasad, the former head of Alexa, who now leads Amazon's AGI team focused on large language models.

“David and his team’s expertise aligns with our vision to enhance AI solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers,” Prasad wrote in a memo obtained by Geekwire. “[The license] will accelerate our roadmap for building digital agents that can automate software workflows.”

Adept was founded two years ago with the mission to create an AI model capable of performing tasks across any software using natural language. This vision, shared by companies like OpenAI and Rabbit, aimed to create an AI teammate proficient with diverse software tools and APIs.

The startup garnered support from Nvidia, Atlassian, Workday, and Greylock, raising over $415 million and achieving a valuation near $1 billion. However, Adept faced significant internal challenges, losing co-founders Ashish Vaswani and Niki Parmar early on and struggling to launch any product despite extensive testing.

The AI agents market has become more competitive since Adept's inception, with startups like Orby and Emergence vying for market share. Grand View Research estimates the AI agents segment was worth $4.2 billion in 2022.

Amazon's involvement may provide the momentum Adept needs to succeed. However, with many of its executives departing, Adept could face the same fate as Inflection, an AI startup gutted by Microsoft earlier this year. Alternatively, regulatory scrutiny of these AI acquisitions might intervene, depending on the evolving legal landscape.