https://qz.com/1088933/amazon-amzn-says-there-are-now-5000-people-working-on-alexa/

Amazon is going all in on the Echo, its popular smart-home device. Today (Sept. 27) in Seattle, the company unveiled a new version of the Echo, a small mottled-gray cylinder designed to blend into its surroundings, as well as a larger, shinier Echo Plus, and plenty of other stuff.

Perhaps the clearest sign that Amazon is investing big in the Echo and the virtual personal assistant that goes with it, Alexa, came from a comment made by David Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of devices and services: More than 5,000 people now work just on Alexa.