Alexa leadership at Amazon is changing hands one day after the company launched its most expensive tablets yet. On Friday 9 October 2026 Amazon confirmed to Reuters that Daniel Rausch, the 17-year veteran who has run Alexa and Echo for more than three years, will step away from the unit next month. Aidan Marcuss, who runs Fire TV, advertising and the Amazon Appstore, will replace him. Amazon declined to say more.
The timing is what makes the Alexa leadership change worth a closer look. On Thursday 8 October Amazon retired the Fire tablet brand and replaced it with three Alexa Tablets priced from $229.99 to $549.99. Each has Alexa+, the company’s generative AI assistant, built into its home screen.
This article covers what Amazon confirmed, what the tablets cost in the US and the UK, why the Fire line was dropped, and the money question Alexa still has to answer. It also looks at the run of departures behind this Alexa leadership shuffle and what it means for businesses that buy Amazon devices or build an AI strategy around voice assistants.
If you are new to the product, our explainer on what Amazon Alexa is covers the basics. This piece assumes you know the assistant and want to know what the new Alexa leadership team inherits.
Table of contents
- What Amazon Confirmed About the Alexa Leadership Change
- The High-End Alexa Tablets That Came Before the Alexa Leadership Shuffle
- Why the Fire Tablet Had to Go Before the Alexa Leadership Reset
- Alexa+ and the Money Question Facing the New Alexa Leadership
- Alexa Leadership Turnover Since 2023, From Limp to Marcuss
- Who Aidan Marcuss Is and What He Brings to Alexa Leadership
- What the Alexa Leadership Change Means for Panay’s Hardware Push
- What the Alexa Leadership Shuffle Means for UK Businesses
- What to Watch After the Alexa Leadership Handover
- Frequently Asked Questions About the Alexa Leadership Change
- References
What Amazon Confirmed About the Alexa Leadership Change
The story broke as a Reuters report by Greg Bensinger, published late on Friday 9 October US time. Amazon confirmed the Alexa leadership moves “in response to a Reuters inquiry” rather than in a press release or a blog post, and it “declined to provide additional detail about the changes”. So the facts below come from that one exchange. Later coverage in The Economic Times, Yahoo Finance and Exchange4Media repeats them without adding anything new.
Daniel Rausch steps away in November
According to Reuters, Rausch is “stepping away from the unit next month”, meaning November 2026. He “will return in another capacity in the devices and services division in 2027”. Reuters calls him “the face of Alexa at events and global launches”. Amazon’s own pages bear that out: the February 2026 post announcing that Alexa+ was “now available to everyone in the US” carries his byline as Vice President, Alexa and Echo. Nothing in the reporting says why he is leaving the Alexa leadership role or what he will do next.
Aidan Marcuss moves from Fire TV to Alexa leadership
Marcuss is “currently the vice president of Fire TV, advertising and the Amazon appstore”, Reuters reported. He joined Amazon from Microsoft in early 2025, so he has been at the company for less than two years. Reuters added that he “oversaw the release of a new Fire TV stick last month, which has garnered mixed reviews”. For the Alexa leadership role, his Fire TV record is the most relevant thing he has done at Amazon, and we look at it in detail below.
Kevin Keith covers Fire TV during the Alexa leadership handover
Kevin Keith, a product and marketing vice president, “will keep that role but also take on Marcuss’ responsibilities for the time being”, Amazon told Reuters. Keith is not a new name in this story: Amazon’s 8 October launch post for the Alexa Tablets is bylined “Kevin Keith, Vice President, Devices”. The executive who introduced the tablets will therefore also run Fire TV, advertising and the Appstore until a permanent replacement is named.
| Executive | Role before 9 October | Role after the change | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Rausch | Vice president, Alexa and Echo (3+ years) | Leaves the unit; returns elsewhere in devices and services | November 2026; return in 2027 |
| Aidan Marcuss | Vice president, Fire TV, advertising and Appstore | Runs Alexa | When Rausch steps away |
| Kevin Keith | Vice president, product and marketing | Keeps that role and takes Marcuss’ portfolio for now | Interim, no end date given |
| Panos Panay | Senior vice president, devices and Alexa | Unchanged | n/a |
What Amazon would not say about the Alexa leadership change
Three gaps remain open. Amazon has not said whether the Alexa leadership change was planned before the tablet launch, whether Rausch asked to move, or who will run Fire TV permanently. It has also not said whether Marcuss will report to Panos Panay, though Engadget describes Panay as senior vice president of devices and Alexa, so the reporting line is the obvious one. Treat anything beyond the four rows above as speculation until Amazon publishes more.
The High-End Alexa Tablets That Came Before the Alexa Leadership Shuffle
The new devices explain why the Alexa leadership shuffle drew so much attention. Amazon’s Fire tablets were cheap, plastic and built to sell Prime Video, Kindle books and shopping. The Alexa Tablets reverse almost every one of those choices. Reuters said the line had been developed under the code name Kittyhawk, which it reported exclusively the year before, to move away from Fire OS, a “forked” version of Android that developers disliked supporting.
Three sizes, with US and UK prices
All three models have aluminium unibody cases, 8-core processors and full access to the Google Play Store. US orders ship on 14 October, along with Mexico and Canada. The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain follow on 19 October. Amazon’s launch post gives the US prices. TechRadar published the UK prices after a briefing with Eric Saarnio, vice president of Amazon Devices International.
| Model | Memory and storage | Display | US price | UK price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexa Tablet 8 | 4GB / 64GB | 8.7-inch | $229.99 | £199.99 |
| Alexa Tablet 8 | 4GB / 128GB | 8.7-inch | Not announced | £239.99 |
| Alexa Tablet 11 | 8GB / 64GB | 11-inch 2.5K, 90Hz | $329.99 | £289.99 |
| Alexa Tablet 12 Pro | 8GB / 128GB | 12-inch, 120Hz, 3:2 | $499.99 | £449.99 |
| Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Nanomatte | 8GB / 128GB | Anti-glare 12-inch | $549.99 | £499.99 |
| Alexa Tablet 12 Pro, Nanomatte | 16GB / 256GB | Anti-glare 12-inch | Not announced | £599.99 |
| Pro Keyboard / Pro Pen | Accessories | 12 Pro only | $149.99 / $89.99 | £129.99 / £79.99 |
The early reports disagreed on prices. Reuters gave starting prices “from $230 to $500” and a top price of $550; Barron’s printed “$280 to $680”. Amazon’s own figures in the table above are the ones to trust. Reuters’ $550 is the Nanomatte 12 Pro.
Android and Google Play replace Fire OS
The Alexa Tablets run Android with the Google Play Store, so Gmail, Google Docs, YouTube and Netflix install as normal apps. On Fire tablets those Google services were available only through the browser, because Google’s apps were never in the Amazon Appstore. Amazon’s own apps are still built in: Prime Video, Kindle, Audible, Amazon Music, Amazon Luna and Amazon Quick. The Kindle app has a reading mode that silences notifications and reduces blue light. Amazon says it gives up to 20 hours of reading on a charge.
Alexa+ is built into every tablet
Kevin Keith’s launch post says Alexa+ “is built into the core of every tablet, delivering help that works with whatever you’re doing”. Users can talk to it or press an “Ask Alexa” button. A feature called On-Screen Intelligence lets Alexa+ see what is on the display, and Amazon stresses that it is “off by default and requires a deliberate opt-in”, with “a clear visual indicator whenever Alexa can see the screen”. Live sessions allow a continuous conversation with “no wake word required between questions”.
The chart below sets the new US starting prices against the Fire HD 10 and the base iPad. Barron’s quotes $155 and $449 for those two. Bar widths are each price divided by the $549.99 top model.
The Alexa Tablet 11 costs $329.99, a little over twice the $155 Barron’s quotes for the Fire HD 10. The 12 Pro starts $50.99 above the base iPad. This is a move upmarket, not a refresh.
Why the Fire Tablet Had to Go Before the Alexa Leadership Reset
Amazon frames the change as listening to customers. The sales data suggest a business that had run out of road. Either way, the Alexa leadership reset arrives just as the hardware that carried Alexa into millions of homes is being rebuilt around it.
Amazon’s tablet share fell from 8% to 1.9%
IDC’s figures tell the story. In the second quarter of 2025 Amazon shipped 3.1 million tablets, 8.0% of a 38.3 million-unit market, and was back in the top five. IDC put that jump down to the timing of Prime Day ahead of an expected tariff announcement, which “could have led to Amazon pulling in extra inventory”. A year later the market had shrunk to 33.6 million units. Reuters, citing IDC, said Amazon’s share fell to 1.9%, with Apple on 34% and Samsung on 17.5%.
At 1.9% of 33.6 million, Amazon shipped roughly 640,000 tablets in the second quarter of 2026. That is about a fifth of its 3.1 million a year earlier, and below the 1.0 million IDC counted for the second quarter of 2024.
Memory costs squeezed cheap tablets hardest
IDC’s own explanation is memory. AI data centre buildouts “continue to pull DRAM and NAND capacity away from consumer devices”, and vendors raised list prices. Consumer shipments fell 13.5% year on year against 5.9% for commercial buyers. The US was hit hardest, down 31.6%, and IDC named Amazon among the large vendors whose shipments declined there. A budget tablet sold at or near cost has little room to absorb a memory price shock. A premium tablet has more.
Panay: Fire “wasn’t giving customers what they were asking for”
Panos Panay, who joined Amazon from Microsoft in 2023 to run devices, told Bloomberg the Fire line “wasn’t giving customers what they were asking for”, The Verge reported. The Verge read that as access to Google services, better hardware and less intrusive lock-screen advertising. Saarnio put it more warmly to TechRadar: “we’ve sold a ton of tablets over the years, and that’s something we’re very proud of”. He also called the new range “the biggest leap we’ve ever made in developing tablets in our history”.
What happens to existing Fire tablets
Amazon told Business Insider it will sell through its current Fire inventory but is “no longer manufacturing new units with that branding”. It said Fire tablets “remain their own product, fully supported, with continued security updates”. Panay told Bloomberg “we won’t leave any customer behind”, though The Verge noted there will be no hardware refreshes. Reuters asked whether Amazon would keep maintaining Fire OS and its app store and got no answer. It also pointed out that Amazon cut support for older Kindle models earlier this year, citing maintenance costs.
Alexa+ and the Money Question Facing the New Alexa Leadership
Whoever holds the job, the hardest problem for Alexa leadership is unchanged: making the assistant pay. Reuters summed it up in one line: “Alexa has been a consistent money-loser for Amazon since its release in 2014.”
A decade of losses for every Alexa leadership team
The best-known figure is from The Wall Street Journal in July 2024. Citing internal documents, it reported that Amazon’s devices business, which includes Echo, Kindle, Fire TV and doorbells, lost more than $25 billion between 2017 and 2021. The model was to sell hardware cheaply and recover the money when customers shopped, watched or subscribed. According to the Journal, that worked less well than planned, because people mostly used Echo speakers for free features such as alarms and weather.
Amazon then spent years rebuilding the assistant around a large language model. It announced Alexa+ on 26 February 2025 at $19.99 a month, free for Prime members, and said there were “over 600 million Alexa devices” in use. Alexa+ reached everyone in the US in February 2026. Amazon has since added the UK, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain and Brazil, according to Engadget, and India followed in September.
What Amazon has disclosed, and what it has not
Amazon does not report Alexa revenue or profit. It reports a handful of engagement claims, mostly in its quarterly results. The table lists what is on the record for anyone weighing the Alexa leadership change against the business it inherits.
| Metric | What Amazon says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Alexa+ users | “Hundreds of millions of customers now using new Alexa experiences” | Q2 2026 results, 30 July |
| Shopping uplift | Alexa for Shopping users spend “over 40% more per order” | Q2 2026 results |
| Prime conversion | Alexa+ triers sign up for Prime at a “nearly 25% higher rate” | Q2 2026 results |
| Engagement | Users interact with Alexa+ “more than twice as much overall” | Alexa+ availability post |
| Alexa revenue or profit | Not disclosed | n/a |
| Paying Alexa+ subscribers | Not disclosed | n/a |
The 40% figure compares customers who chose to use Alexa for Shopping with those who did not. Heavier shoppers are more likely to try a shopping assistant in the first place, so it shows correlation, not proof that Alexa made them spend more. The same caution applies to the 25% Prime figure. Neither number says what Alexa costs to run.
The $53 billion figure is not Alexa revenue
A widely shared Yahoo Finance headline asked whether Alexa+ could “move a $53 billion subscription business”. The $53 billion is Amazon’s entire subscription services line over four quarters: Prime fees, video, music, audiobooks and e-books. It is not Alexa revenue. Our arithmetic from Amazon’s second-quarter tables: $12.574 billion + $13.122 billion + $13.427 billion + $13.730 billion = $52.853 billion for the year to June 2026.
Second-quarter subscription revenue rose 12% year on year, from $12.208 billion to $13.730 billion, against 20% growth in Amazon’s total net sales of $200.6 billion. Subscriptions were therefore about 6.8% of the quarter’s sales. The tables give no Alexa line for the new Alexa leadership to be judged on.
Amazon gave two answers on what Alexa+ costs on a tablet
Amazon gave two outlets two different answers on what tablet buyers get. Reuters wrote: “Accessing Alexa+ on the tablets will require a Prime membership or Alexa+ subscription, Amazon said.” Barron’s, reporting Amazon’s position, wrote that “every Alexa Tablet customer gets access to the Alexa+ free tier”. TechRadar said it was “not yet clear” how Alexa+ works on a tablet without a subscription.
Amazon’s own Alexa+ page reconciles the two answers. Prime members get “unlimited access” and non-members pay $19.99 a month. Everyone else gets a “limited text-based chat experience at Alexa.com and in the Alexa app”, where “access to the free Alexa+ experience will be limited based on use”. So a non-Prime buyer gets a usage-capped text chat, not the voice assistant shown in the adverts.
| Buyer | What they get | Extra cost per year |
|---|---|---|
| US Prime member | Full Alexa+, voice and screen | Included in $139 Prime |
| US non-Prime, paid plan | Full Alexa+ | $239.88 (12 x $19.99) |
| UK non-Prime, paid plan | Full Alexa+ | £239.88 (12 x £19.99) |
| Non-Prime, free tier | Limited text chat, capped by use | Nothing |
| Any buyer wanting no lock-screen ads | Ads removed (top model has none) | $20 once, up from $15 on Fire |
The comparison that matters is with the hardware itself. A year of standalone Alexa+ costs more than the cheapest tablet it ships on.
That arithmetic is why Prime, at $139 a year, is the real product here. Amazon told Barron’s that Alexa+ was not the reason for the higher prices, and the tablets are another way of selling Prime. The 25% conversion claim in the results points the same way.
Alexa Leadership Turnover Since 2023, From Limp to Marcuss
This shuffle is the latest in three years of Alexa leadership turnover. The long-serving people who built Alexa have almost all gone, and the people now in charge came largely from elsewhere.
Dave Limp leaves and Panos Panay arrives
Dave Limp ran Amazon devices for more than a decade and retired in 2023. Amazon hired Panos Panay from Microsoft that year to replace him. Panay had spent almost two decades building Surface hardware and running Windows and devices there. Marcuss also came from Microsoft, in early 2025. The two men who now control Alexa products therefore share an employer, a hardware-first background and, at least on paper, a taste for premium devices.
Rohit Prasad leaves for Boston Dynamics
Rohit Prasad was Alexa’s head scientist from its earliest days and later senior vice president and head scientist for artificial general intelligence. In a memo on 17 December 2025, Andy Jassy said Prasad would leave at the end of that year. He put Peter DeSantis in charge of a new group combining AI models, custom chips and quantum computing, Fortune reported. On 6 October 2026, two days before the tablet launch, Boston Dynamics named Prasad its chief executive from 7 October. Robert Playter had stepped down as chief executive of the Hyundai-owned robot maker in February.
Rausch was the public face of Alexa+
Rausch stayed through the generative rebuild and became its public face, presenting the assistant at launches and signing the Alexa+ availability posts. His move means the Alexa leadership team that shipped Alexa+ has now almost entirely left: Limp in 2023, Prasad in 2025, Rausch in November 2026.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 2014 | Alexa launches with the first Echo speaker |
| 2023 | Dave Limp retires; Panos Panay joins from Microsoft to run devices |
| 26 February 2025 | Alexa+ announced at $19.99 a month, free with Prime |
| Early 2025 | Aidan Marcuss joins Amazon from Microsoft |
| 17 December 2025 | Jassy announces Rohit Prasad’s exit at year end |
| February 2026 | Alexa+ available to everyone in the US |
| 19 August 2026 | Alexa+ made free on eligible Fire TV devices, no Prime needed |
| 6 October 2026 | Boston Dynamics names Prasad chief executive |
| 8 October 2026 | Alexa Tablets launched; Fire tablet brand retired |
| 9 October 2026 | Amazon confirms the Alexa leadership change to Reuters |
| November 2026 | Rausch steps away; Marcuss takes over Alexa |
Job cuts around the Alexa leadership change
The Alexa leadership change also lands in a week of cost-cutting. On 7 October Amazon confirmed what it called a small number of job cuts, mainly in its Stores unit. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters it was fewer than 1,000 white-collar roles. Reuters said they follow a round of 30,000 cuts that began in 2025 and ran into January. In July, Amazon also cut jobs in the AGI group Prasad had led. Nothing links those cuts to the Alexa reshuffle, but they show the mood: every unit is being asked to justify its cost.
Who Aidan Marcuss Is and What He Brings to Alexa Leadership
Marcuss is not well known outside Amazon, and his promotion is the least explained part of the Alexa leadership shuffle. The public record of his time there is short. Most of it is Fire TV, which is also the product that most resembles what Alexa now has to become.
The Fire TV Stick and Vega OS
The new Fire TV Stick 4K launched on 30 September at $60. It is faster than the old model, but it runs Vega OS, Amazon’s own Linux-based system, instead of Android-based Fire OS. XDA Developers called that “a major catch”, because users can no longer sideload Android apps. That was a big part of the old stick’s appeal. Amazon says Vega OS now has more than 2,000 additional apps, including Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube. The “mixed reviews” Reuters mentions are mostly about that trade-off.
Tablets and TVs are going in opposite directions. The Alexa Tablets drop Amazon’s own fork of Android for the full version, while the Fire TV Stick moves to a system Amazon built itself. Under the new Alexa leadership, Marcuss will run the assistant that sits on both.
Alexa+ free on Fire TV: the growth test
The more telling move under Marcuss came in August. From 19 August, Amazon gave every eligible US Fire TV owner Alexa+ “at no extra cost, even without a Prime subscription”, as PCMag put it, and Engadget reported the same. Amazon described it as an automatic upgrade: “No app to download, and no subscription to activate.” That covers current Fire TV Sticks, the Fire TV Cube, Amazon’s own TVs and partner sets from Panasonic and Hisense.
Giving away a $19.99 service on a $60 device is a bet that engagement turns into Prime sign-ups and shopping, which is exactly what the results claim. It shows the kind of Alexa leadership Marcuss is likely to bring: distribution first, monetisation through the wider Amazon account.
Advertising and the Appstore
Marcuss also ran advertising and the Appstore, the two businesses most affected by the tablets’ switch to Google Play. The Alexa Tablets keep lock-screen ads unless the owner pays $20 to remove them, and the top model has none. Amazon told Reuters the ads help users “discover new content that’s relevant to their interests” and fund other features. The Appstore loses most of its reason to exist on tablets that ship with Google Play.
What the Alexa Leadership Change Means for Panay's Hardware Push
Panay has been releasing products almost weekly: Ring cameras, a redesigned Kindle family, Fire TV hardware and now the tablets. The Alexa leadership change hands one of his lieutenants the software layer that is supposed to tie all of it together.
More Alexa-branded devices “not that you’ve seen”
Engadget’s Cherlynn Low asked Panay whether the Alexa Tablets were the start of more hardware with the assistant’s name on it. He first said “No, it’s just when it makes sense”, then added “not that you’ve seen”. He also let slip that design chief Ralf Groene is “developing what he calls a Neo design language”. Panay described it as “a structure of how we’re moving information”. He promised more on Echo devices and Neo before the end of October.
Apple, Google and Meta are all moving
The competitive pressure is real. Apple is expected to ship a home hub built around its new Siri, covered in our report on the Apple home hub device built around Siri AI. Google is putting Gemini into speakers, TVs and thermostats. Meta’s Muse agent wants to act on users’ behalf across devices, and Amazon has already barred Meta’s Muse AI from shopping on its site. The Alexa leadership job now sits at the centre of a consumer assistant fight that looks very different from the one Rausch inherited in 2023.
Shopping is where Alexa earns its keep
Shopping is the part of Alexa that Amazon can already price. In the second quarter it merged Rufus and Alexa+ into a single assistant, which we covered when Alexa for Shopping started checking scam messages. The 40%-more-per-order claim is Amazon’s best evidence that Alexa pays. Expect the new Alexa leadership to lean on it.
What the Alexa Leadership Shuffle Means for UK Businesses
For UK organisations the story is less about who runs Alexa and more about what the Alexa leadership reshuffle says about the platform. A vendor that has rebuilt its assistant, changed its operating system and replaced its leaders in under two years is still working out its strategy. Plan around that.
The tablets arrive in the UK on 19 October
UK buyers get the full range from 19 October, from £199.99 for the Alexa Tablet 8 to £599.99 for the 16GB Nanomatte 12 Pro. TechRadar notes that a 12 Pro bundle with keyboard and pen still costs less than Apple’s entry-level iPad Air, which starts at £749 after Apple’s June price rises. For a team that mainly needs Google Workspace, email and video calls, that is a credible low-cost option on paper.
Alexa+ in the UK
Alexa+ came to the UK in March 2026 at £19.99 a month, free for Prime members, according to Tech Times. Browser access at Alexa.com opened to UK early-access users on 20 July. Amazon’s UK launch campaign with Brett Goldstein began this month, and UK Alexa director Meryem Tom said the assistant was designed “to understand the way British people actually live”. The free text tier described above is a US arrangement in Amazon’s documentation; check UK terms before relying on it.
Screen-reading AI on work devices
On-Screen Intelligence is the feature to think about before deploying these tablets at work. It is off by default, which is the right design, but once a user turns it on Alexa+ can read whatever is on the display, including client emails and documents. Under UK GDPR that is a processing decision that needs a policy, not an individual’s preference. It belongs in your data protection review alongside cloud transcription and meeting bots. It is also a cybersecurity question, because a cloud assistant with screen access widens what a compromised account can reach.
Managing Android tablets at scale
Moving from Fire OS to full Android should make these tablets easier to manage than Fire tablets ever were. Amazon has not yet said whether they support standard Android enterprise enrolment, so ask before you buy in bulk. If you already run device management for Android phones, test one tablet in your existing tooling first. Three Alexa-specific settings need checking: Prime account ownership, lock-screen ads and the On-Screen Intelligence toggle.
| Question to ask before buying | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does it enrol in our existing Android management tool? | Amazon has not confirmed enterprise enrolment support |
| Whose Prime or Alexa+ account does each tablet use? | Alexa+ is tied to a consumer membership, not a company tenant |
| Can On-Screen Intelligence be locked off? | Screen reading of client data needs a documented decision |
| Will we pay to remove lock-screen ads? | Ads on a client-facing device look unprofessional |
| What happens to Fire tablets we already own? | Security updates continue, but there will be no new hardware |
What to Watch After the Alexa Leadership Handover
The Alexa leadership handover runs through the next few months, and several dates will show whether the new Alexa leadership team changes course.
First reviews from 14 and 19 October
Reviews from the US launch on 14 October will show whether Alexa+ on a tablet is useful or decorative. Reviews after the 19 October European launch will also show how the free and paid tiers behave outside the US.
Panay’s Echo and Neo reveal
Panay promised more on Echo hardware and the Neo design language before the end of the month. The Echo is the device most closely tied to the Alexa brand, so that event will be the first big public test of the new Alexa leadership, even before Marcuss formally takes over.
Amazon’s third-quarter results
Amazon guided to third-quarter operating income of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion. Watch for any new Alexa+ numbers, the first the new Alexa leadership can be measured against, especially a paying-subscriber count, which the company has never given.
IDC’s fourth-quarter tablet data
The fourth quarter will be the first full one with Alexa Tablets on sale. IDC’s figures in early 2027 will show whether premium pricing wins back share or simply shrinks Amazon’s volume further. Rausch’s return in 2027, in a role not yet named, is the other date to note.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Alexa Leadership Change
Who takes over Alexa leadership from Daniel Rausch?
Aidan Marcuss, currently vice president of Fire TV, advertising and the Amazon Appstore, will lead Alexa when Daniel Rausch steps away in November 2026. Marcuss joined Amazon from Microsoft in early 2025. Kevin Keith will cover his current responsibilities in the meantime.
Why is Daniel Rausch leaving Alexa?
Amazon has not said. It confirmed only that Rausch is stepping away from the unit next month and will return in another role in devices and services in 2027. It declined to give further detail on the Alexa leadership change.
Is the Alexa leadership change linked to the tablet launch?
Amazon has not said so. The confirmation came a day after the Alexa Tablets launched, in answer to a Reuters inquiry, and nothing on the record ties the two together. The overlap in timing and people, with Kevin Keith fronting the tablets and taking over Marcuss’ old job, is why the two stories are being read together.
Do Alexa Tablets need Prime for Alexa+?
For the full assistant, yes, or a $19.99 (£19.99) monthly Alexa+ plan. Without either, Amazon’s documentation describes a limited, usage-capped text chat at Alexa.com and in the Alexa app. Amazon’s statements to Reuters and Barron’s differed on this point, so check the terms at checkout.
Are Fire tablets discontinued?
Amazon is no longer making Fire-branded tablets and will sell through its remaining stock. Existing Fire tablets keep receiving security updates, but there will be no new models.
Is Rohit Prasad still at Amazon?
No. Prasad, Alexa’s original head scientist and later head of Amazon’s AGI group, left at the end of 2025. On 6 October 2026 Boston Dynamics named him chief executive.
References
Amazon shuffles Alexa leadership following high-end tablet release (Reuters via TradingView)
Introducing all-new Amazon Alexa Tablets with Alexa+ built in (About Amazon)
Amazon Launches New Tablets. Alexa+ Is the Bigger Deal (Barron’s via TradingView)
The Alexa Tablet 12 Pro is Amazon’s first full Android tablet (TechRadar)
Amazon is phasing out Fire Tablets (The Verge)
RIP, Amazon Fire tablets: 2011-2026 (Business Insider)
Panos Panay teases more Alexa-branded devices and a new design language (Engadget)
The Tablet Market Hits a Wall (IDC)
Tablet market grows 13.1% in the second quarter of 2025 (IDC)
Amazon.com Announces Second Quarter Results (Amazon Investor Relations)
Alexa+ now available to everyone in the US (About Amazon)
Introducing Alexa+, the next generation of Alexa (About Amazon)
Alexa+ is now free for anyone with a Fire TV device (Engadget)
Amazon’s refreshed Fire TV Stick 4K and the switch to Vega OS (XDA Developers)
Amazon reportedly lost over $25 billion on its devices business (Thurrott)
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announces departure of AI exec Rohit Prasad (Fortune)
Boston Dynamics appoints former Amazon exec Rohit Prasad as new CEO (The Robot Report)
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