Amazon has a huge team dedicated to the improvement of Alexa and Echo

Amazon's Echo Smartphone based on Alexa was the best-selling item in the sales site during the 2017 holiday season. A few months ago, data suggested that Echo's smart speakers sold more than similar devices made by Google and Apple.

Wanting to build on its successes with Alexa and Echo and advance on artificial intelligence technology, Amazon has built a team of 10,000 employees – this is the ten thousand – dedicated to the development of the platform.

The revelation came on Tuesday via Dave Limp, Senior Vice President of Amazon Devices, at an event at a technical event of the Wall Street Journal in California.

Equally remarkable is the speed at which the team grew, doubling in size in just 12 months, as Amazon steps up its efforts to increase Alexa's capabilities and design better speakers.

During the past year, Amazon has launched a number of new Echo speakers, as well as the Echo Auto device that places the digital assistant in cars. He also recently unveiled the AmazonBasics microwave that allows Alexa to take care of your kitchen (Echo speaker required).

An increasing number of third-party gadget manufacturers are also producing intelligent devices incorporating Alexa, while developers continue to create new skills that enable Alexa to carry out a growing range of tasks.

Of course, some people still worry about having a device listening to them at home and a story earlier this year in which Alexa inadvertently sent recording a private conversation to another person would certainly not have helped to dispel such concerns about privacy.

But as the holiday season approaches, Amazon expects sales of its smart speakers to increase dramatically. According to the Journal, the company has already sold more than 45 million Echo devices worldwide since the launch of the first in 2014, giving it just over 50% of the smart speaker market.

Rival offers include the Google Home Speaker Series and the Apple HomePod, delivered with their own digital assistants. You can read here about how the three competing platforms overlap.

The news of Amazon's efforts to succeed the Echo and Alexa was announced the same day the company announced its intention to increase its headcount of 50,000 people in two new hubs announced this week for New York and Arlington, in Virginia. Globally, the online trading giant employs 600,000 people, an increase of 13% over the previous year.