Amazon CEO Warns of Job Reductions as AI Integration Accelerates

Amazon expects to reduce corporate jobs due to AI | TechCrunch

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is betting that generative AI will change how the company thinks about its workforce in the future. Jassy said that as the company continues to roll out more AI agents, and thus change how the company's work is done, he expects Amazon will reduce the number of corporate jobs needed in the future, according to a memo that was first covered by CNBC. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy wrote in the memo. He added that the size of this future reduction of workforce is hard to estimate. A recent survey from the World Economic Forum found that potential reductions in workforce due to AI may already be happening. The survey found that 40% of employers plan to cut staff that are doing roles that can be automated by AI.

Amazon CEO says it will cut jobs due to AI's 'efficiency'

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says advancements in AI will "reduce" the company's corporate headcount over the next few years. In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Jassy writes that Amazon expects the change due to "efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," without specifying how many employees would be affected. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done," Jassy says. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 people since 2022, and most recently cut jobs across its devices and services group and its books division. Jassy notes that Amazon has more than 1,000 AI services and apps that the company is working on or has already built, saying that it's just a "small fraction" of what it's planning to launch in the future. He notes that workers should also "be curious about AI" and how to use it to "get more done with scrappier teams: Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company. Other companies have shared statements about how they expect AI to impact their workforce as well. In April, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke told employees asking for more headcount or resources that they should explain why they "cannot get what they want done using AI." Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn also stated that the company plans on replacing contract workers with AI as part of a new "AI-first" approach.

Amazon CEO warns staff: Eat or be eaten by AI

Expect headcount reductions over the next few years, says Andy Jassy Amazon staff on Tuesday got an email from their CEO advising that some of them will probably be replaced by bots. CEO Andy Jassy's memo said that Amazon is accelerating its use of generative AI, both internally and in its products. He cited Alexa+ as one example of where the company was heading, although Amazon's CISO recently told us the company has a bit more work to do on safety guardrails before the personal assistant goes on general release. Testers are currently trying it out but the release date still hasn't been announced. "Over a million people now have access, and we're pleased with the customer response - we're getting lots of great feedback and learning as we scale," an Amazon spokesperson told us today. "We're continuing to roll out to customers at an increasing pace, and excited to make it even more broadly available over the summer." Jassy said that Amazon would "lean in further" to using generative AI programs internally as well, and the company is working on - or has completed - over a thousand generative AI programs. But it is going to mean headcount reduction in the short-term. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done," he declared. This will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." To avoid the AI guillotine, Jassy recommended that staff get busy learning new skills, attending workshops, and experimenting with AI. Amazon workers tell us that AWS Skill Builder is free to all staff (outsiders have to pay $29 a month for some of the content), and has some useful courses, and others that aren't great. In the memo, Jassy recounts that when he joined Amazon as a lowly assistant product manager in 1997 the company was much smaller and teams were leaner and scrappier. With generative AI as the next big technology, those who learn how to use it "will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company." Jassy's memo didn't mention any immediate job cuts, and Amazon's return-to-office policy may end up reducing headcount through voluntary attrition anyway. Amazon's boss is a prominent advocate of telling staff that the lockdown days of no commuting are over, and almost all Amazon's staff are now expected to be in the office five days a week - something fewer than one in ten staff are happy about. There's growing evidence that people are staying away from employers who want to reintroduce a five days in the office routine. Last month a study of British workers found that half would start looking for another job if such a regimen was enforced, and Amazon may find that losing people is easier than it thought. Not that the e-commerce and cloud giant has any problems laying folks off if necessary. Like most tech companies Amazon went on a hiring binge during the Covid pandemic, doubling its headcount to 1.6 million by 2021. Since then Amazon has fired at least 27,000 staff and more cuts are expected as the cost cutting continues. As for where this stops, no one knows. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is predicting a bloodbath, with half of white collar jobs going in the next five years. Some academics are more hopeful, but if you sit down with a bunch of coders or entry-level security folk, the mood isn't optimistic. ®

Amazon's workforce to reduce on rollout of generative AI, agents

June 17 (Reuters) - Rollout of generative AI and agents will reduce Amazon's (AMZN.O), opens new tab total corporate workforce in the next few years, Andy Jassy, CEO of the online retailer wrote in a note to employees on Tuesday. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global workforce by automating routine and repetitive tasks, and industry leaders expect this to prompt a reduction or transformation of certain roles across industries. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Amazon says AI will mean fewer 'corporate' jobs

Amazon has told its white collar employees that their jobs are at risk from artificial intelligence in the next few years, marking a rare explicit warning from a senior tech executive that AI will lead to lay-offs. Andy Jassy, the ecommerce giant's chief executive, told employees in a memo on Tuesday that the company was deploying AI across its operations, particularly in its logistics network, to help lower costs. He said the company wants to increase its use of AI, which would mean job losses. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce." The memo comes as Amazon and other Big Tech groups are under pressure from investors to show they can deliver efficiencies from their vast investment in AI. The company also faces a threat to its business from Donald Trump's volatile trade policy. Amazon's shares are down about 2.5 per cent this year. The Seattle-based conglomerate has committed to invest roughly $100bn in the current fiscal year, with the bulk directed towards AI infrastructure. Amazon is racing against rivals Google and Microsoft to take a lead in the AI boom and power its fast-growing profit engine Amazon Web Services. Jassy last year said the company was striving to "eliminate bureaucracy" and would pursue a flatter structure with less middle management. The group eliminated 27,000 roles in two major rounds of job cuts in 2023, while Amazon Web Services slashed hundreds of roles in 2024. Technology company bosses have been reluctant to publicly espouse the view that AI will lead to job cuts, preferring to emphasise the increases in efficiency that these models offer. Microsoft cut 3 per cent of its global workforce in May. Job losses at its headquarters in Washington state disproportionately affected software engineers, according to state filings. Chief executive Satya Nadella has touted AI's ability to replace humans in writing code. "I'd say maybe 20 per cent, 30 per cent of the code that is inside of our repos today and some of our projects are probably all written by software," Nadella told Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in April. Microsoft maintained the cuts were not precipitated by AI.

AI will shrink Amazon's workforce in the coming years, CEO Jassy says

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it adopts more generative artificial intelligence tools and agents. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said in a memo to employees. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." Jassy wrote that employees should learn how to use AI tools and experiment and figure out "how to get more done with scrappier teams." The directive comes as Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022 and made several cuts this year. Amazon cut about 200 employees in its North America stores unit in January and a further 100 in its devices and services unit. Amazon had 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees in its global workforce as of the end of March, according to financial filings. The company also employs temporary workers in its warehouse operations, along with some contractors.

Amazon boss says AI will replace jobs at tech giant

"It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." Companies, especially in the tech sector, have been investing heavily in AI in recent years, spurred on by technological advances that have made it easier than ever for chatbots to create code, images and text with limited instruction. But as the new tools gain traction, they have sparked warnings from some tech leaders of job losses, especially in entry-level office roles. Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI-firm Anthropic, told news website Axios last month that the technology could wipe out half of entry-level white collar jobs. Geoffrey Hinton, whose work on AI, including at Google, has earned him the moniker "Godfather of AI", echoed those warnings on a recent podcast. "This is a very different kind of technology," he said, pushing back against arguments that job losses from AI will be outweighed as the technology creates new kinds of positions, in a pattern seen with earlier technological leaps. "If it can do all mundane human intellectual labor, then what new jobs is it going to create? You'd have to be very skilled to have a job that it couldn't just do." Amazon directly employed more than 1.5 million people around the world at the end of last year. The majority of those staff are in the US, where it ranks as the country's second-largest employer after Walmart. While many staff the firm's e-commerce warehouses, about 350,000 people also serve the company in office roles.

Amazon CEO: AI will shrink corporate workforce in coming years

Amazon's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as generative AI takes hold, CEO Andy Jassy told employees Tuesday. In a memo to employees, shared publicly via Amazon's blog, Jassy wrote that generative AI and agents will fundamentally reshape how work gets done at the Seattle-based tech giant. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," he said. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." Amazon's corporate workforce numbered around 350,000 in early 2023. It has not provided an updated number since then. The company's last significant layoff occurred in 2023 when it cut 27,000 corporate workers. Since then the company has made a series of smaller layoffs across different business units. Jassy encouraged employees to embrace AI, attend workshops, and find ways to use it in daily work -- framing the transition as a chance to do more with smaller, scrappier teams. "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company," Jassy wrote. In the memo, Jassy said AI is now integrated "in virtually every corner" of Amazon -- Alexa+, shopping tools, fulfillment logistics, advertising, AWS services, and more. Jassy also described a future filled with "AI agents" capable of automating everything from research and coding to shopping and daily tasks. He said more than 1,000 AI services and applications have already been built or are underway -- "a small fraction of what we will ultimately build."

Amazon Preps Employees for Layoffs by Talking Up the Power of AI Agents

Amazon appears to be soft-launching its next round of layoffs. In a message to employees shared Tuesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy talked highly of the company's embrace of artificial intelligence tools across its company, and said that it will ultimately "reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains" over time. That is only slightly veiled corporate speak for "get ready to be replaced." Jassy called generative AI a "once-in-a-lifetime" technology that will change the way the company operates, and said Amazon is already using it in "virtually every corner of the company." According to Jassy, Amazon already has over 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, and said, "that’s a small fraction of what we will ultimately build." So it's clear the company is all in on AI. Amazon previously said it would commit $100 billion to investing in AI technologies this year. As for humans? Well, it seems Amazon is not so committed to them long-term. Jassy told the company's 1.5 million employees that generative AI will "change the way our work is done," and said that the company will ultimately "need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." The underlying message: you might soon be out of work. "It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," Jassy wrote. The CEO did offer his workers, some of whom are likely wondering just how long they'll be employed, how to potentially survive the next round of layoffs (or, maybe more likely, help train their future replacements). "As we go through this transformation together, be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can, participate in your team’s brainstorms to figure out how to invent for our customers more quickly and expansively, and how to get more done with scrappier teams." Amazon has been in the process of stripping its workforce down to the bones in departments it seems to care less about. The company cut about 100 people from its devices and services team earlier this year, and around the same number from its books department. Per CNBC, it has laid off about 27,000 people since 2022 and has its eyes on further cuts. It's hard to look at Jassy's AI-forward message as much else other than an indicator that more layoffs are just around the corner. It's possible the AI hype is just a cynical attempt to position itself as being an industry leader when the real goal is cutting salaries to boost stock price. It wouldn't be the first company to try to go all-in on AI at the expense of human labor. Earlier this year, Klarna announced it was bringing back human customer service representatives after trying to leave the task to AI after finding the outcomes aren't great and people don't really like dealing with AI agents.

Amazon CEO tells employees that AI will shrink its workforce

Andy Jassy said in a memo that white-collar and warehouse workers will be affected by the technology. Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy told employees in a Tuesday memo that he expects artificial intelligence to thin their ranks, reducing headcount at what is now the United States' second-largest private employer. "[I]n the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," the memo said. It was also posted publicly. Jassy described how AI technology will affect corporate workers such as software developers in addition to employees in Amazon warehouses, where he said the technology will "improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots." HR representatives instructed staff to read Jassy's email, an employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their job told The Washington Post. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) In the tech industry, firms including Meta and Shopify have increasingly been requiring staff to use AI, citing productivity improvements and the potential for personal advancement. But the warning to Amazon workers comes as excitement about AI in the tech industry has spurred new debate about whether the technology will be a job killer or creator. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot, predicted last month that unemployment could spike to 20 percent in the next few years due to the technology he is racing to develop. Politicians including Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Barack Obama have said they are also concerned about job elimination. On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said in his newsletter that AI companies had successfully used the threat of Chinese advancement on AI to evade regulation designed to address the risk of job elimination. Economists have generally found that previous waves of AI and automation technology had overall little effect on employment, changing or eliminating some jobs but also creating new ones. A recent drop in the number of computer programmers has prompted suggestions that recent AI advances have broken that past pattern. A Gallup report this week found a sharp increase in daily use of AI by U.S. workers, from 4 percent to 8 percent over the past year. For white-collar workers, weekly use of AI increased from 15 percent to 27 percent. Amazon and other large tech companies made sweeping layoffs in 2022, after hiring sprees during the coronavirus pandemic. Jassy -- who replaced Bezos as CEO in 2021 -- has made doing more with less a hallmark of his leadership. He created a money-saving metric called "cost to serve" that aims to drive down how much Amazon spends to deliver goods and services to customers. Last year, Jassy said an AI coding assistant saved Amazon programmers 4,500 years of work by speeding up the task of upgrading software. The company has performed small workforce reductions in 2025, including on its books and devices team, according to Reuters and local news reports. In screenshots of internal Slack messages shared with The Post, one Amazon employee noted that layoffs and attrition without replacement have become the norm at Amazon in recent years. Jassy's memo to employees on Tuesday highlighted Amazon's own AI products, including chatbots for shopping, tools for generative AI ads, and Alexa+, an AI-enhanced version of the company's virtual assistant that the company said is now available to 1 million consumers after a long road to launch. In his email, Jassy encouraged staff who want to have long careers at Amazon to find a way to make use of the technology. "[B]e curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can," he wrote. "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company."

Amazon CEO says AI will mean fewer white-collar workers

At the same time, Amazon is rapidly embedding AI across nearly every part of its operations. More than 1,000 generative AI tools are already live or in development. Alexa is being retooled as "Alexa+," a smarter assistant that can take action rather than just respond to prompts. On the shopping side, new features such as "Lens" (visual search), "Buy for Me" (cross-site purchasing), and automated sizing recommendations are being rolled out. The company's generative AI shopping assistant is, according to Jassy, being used by tens of millions of customers.

Amazon's Jassy says AI will reduce company's corporate ranks

Generative AI and AI-powered software agents "should change the way our work is done," Jassy said in an email to employees on Tuesday that laid out his thinking about how the emerging technology will transform the workplace. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy wrote. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." From the start of the AI boom, people inside and outside the industry have raised concerns about the potential for artificial intelligence to replace workers. Those concerns have only grown as tech companies introduce more sophisticated AI systems that can write code and field online tasks on a user's behalf. Dario Amodei, CEO of OpenAI rival Anthropic, recently warned that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and cause unemployment to spike to as high as 20% over the next five years. Amazon, which has prioritized automation in logistics and headquarters roles for years, is investing heavily in AI. Jassy, in his letter, rattled off some of those initiatives, including the Alexa+ voice software, a shopping assistant, and tools for developers and businesses sold by the Amazon Web Services cloud unit. Inside the company, Amazon has used AI tools for inventory placement, customer service and product listings. Jassy encouraged employees to "experiment with AI whenever you can." "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," he said. Amazon is the largest private U.S. employer after Walmart Inc., with 1.56 million employees as of the end of March. Most work in warehouses packing and shipping items, but about 350,000 of them have corporate jobs.

Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

Anne Marie D. Lee is an editor for CBS MoneyWatch. She writes about topics including personal finance, the workplace, travel and social media. Amazon's CEO envisions an "agentic future" in which AI robots, or agents, replace humans working in the company's offices. In a memo to employees made public by Amazon on Tuesday, CEO Andy Jassy said he expects the company to reduce its corporate workforce as soon as the next few years, as it leans more heavily on Generative AI tools to help fulfill workplace duties. "As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done," Jassy stated. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." The CEO added that AI will reduce its total corporate workforce as Amazon gets "efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." With approximately 1.5 million employees worldwide, the e-commerce giant is the second largest private employer in the United States. Reached for comment, an Amazon spokesperson deferred to the original memo. Amazon shares dipped slightly on Tuesday, down 0.5% as of 2:30 p.m. EST. Amazon is "investing quite expansively" in generative AI technology, according to Jassy, adding that "the progress we are making is evident." "Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they're coming, and coming fast," the CEO stated in the memo. Amazon ramped up its participation in the generative AI arms race with the release of the Amazon Echo smart speaker in 2014, its first product to include its virtual assistant Alexa. This February, the company announced it was unveiling Alexa+, a new version of the AI-powered voice assistant that's "more conversational, smarter, personalized." AI features have since been incorporated across Amazon's e-commerce websites through tools like "Buy for Me" which allow customers to ask a shopping assistant to buy an item for them and "Recommended Size" which predicts your clothing size based on past purchases. Amazon's AI shopping assistant is currently used by tens of millions of customers, according to Jassy. The company currently has 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, he said.

Amazon expects to cut corporate jobs as it relies more on AI

The Amazon office in Munich on March 25. Matthias Balk / dpa / picture alliance via Getty Images file Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Tuesday that the company expects artificial intelligence "will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains" over time. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people do other types of jobs," Jassy added in a memo to Amazon's workforce. The CEO of the country's second-largest retailer and employer said Amazon is using generative A.I. "in virtually every corner of the company." Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide, according its most recent annual report. This year, Amazon plans to spend $100 billion to expand A.I. services and data centers that power them, up from $83 billion last year. Jassy said he believes so-called "A.I. agents" will "change how we all work and live." While "many of these agents have yet to be built," he said, "they're coming, and fast." He continued by saying that they will "change the scope and speed at which we can innovate for customers." Amazon currently has more than a thousand A.I. services and applications running inside the company or in progress of being built. Jassy's comments Tuesday will likely invoke fears that many corporate workers have had as artificial intelligence captures the eye of efficiency-minded executives across corporate America. A recent study from Bloomberg Intelligence said that A.I. could replace up to 200,000 banking jobs.

AI Will Eliminate Jobs at Amazon, Warns CEO Andy Jassy | AIM

Amazon is gearing up for significant changes to its workforce as Generative AI becomes a more integral part of the company. In a message to employees, CEO Andy Jassy stated that as AI takes on more tasks, the types of jobs Amazon requires will shift, and this could result in a decline in corporate roles overall. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," said Jassy. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," he added. While he stopped short of announcing immediate layoffs, the message clearly indicated that efficiency gains from AI adoption will likely reduce the total number of corporate roles over the next few years. Jassy said that the company has already built or is in the process of developing more than 1,000 GenAI applications and services, many of which automate functions previously carried out by humans. He expressed strong confidence that AI agents will fundamentally change how people work and live. Jassy described these agents as software systems that use AI to perform tasks on behalf of users or other systems. "Think of agents as software systems that use AI to perform tasks on behalf of users or other systems," he explained. These AI-powered tools, he added, can handle a wide range of tasks -- from scouring the web and summarising results to writing code, detecting anomalies, translating language, and automating repetitive work. "Agents let you tell them what you want (often in natural language)... and automate a lot of tasks that consume our time," Jassy said. He urged employees to embrace the change and actively upskill. He encouraged them to "be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can." Reflecting on his early days at Amazon, Jassy recalled joining the company in 1997 as an Assistant Product Manager, working on "leaner teams that got a lot done quickly" and where individuals could make a real impact. "We didn't have tools resembling anything like Generative AI," he noted, "but we had broad remits, high ambition, and saw the opportunity to improve -- and invent -- so many customer experiences." Jassy described Generative AI as "the most transformative technology since the Internet" and said those who embrace it will be "well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company."

Andy Jassy says generative AI will reduce Amazon's workforce in the coming years - SiliconANGLE

Andy Jassy says generative AI will reduce Amazon's workforce in the coming years Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Andy Jassy has admitted that his company's workforce is likely going to become much smaller in future as more tasks are performed by generative artificial intelligence tools and AI agents. In a memo to employees today, Jassy (pictured) said the company expects it will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs". He added that it's difficult to forecast where this will net out over time, though he said he's almost certain that AI will ultimately "reduce our total corporate workforce." The CEO told employees that they need to figure out how they can use AI tools to "get more done with scrappier teams". Amazon has already laid off more than 27,000 staff since 2022, including several cuts this year. For instance, it let go of around 200 employees at its North American stores unit in January, and another 100 were laid off from its devices and services business in May. As of March, Amazon had 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees on its books globally, according to its financial filings. In addition, it also employs thousands of temporary workers in its warehouses, plus numerous contractors in other areas of its business. But this will likely change in future, for the company has been working hard to bring in generative AI tools across its business operations. For instance, it's using AI across its fulfillment network to help out in things such as inventory placement and demand forecasting, Jassy said in the memo. It's also trying to use AI to improve the efficiency of its warehouse robots by making them more intelligent. Jassy isn't the first technology CEO to admit that AI is likely going to shrink his company's workforce. Shopify Inc. CEO Tobi Lutke said in April that using AI is now a "fundamental expectation" for his employees, and added that managers and team leaders will have to demonstrate why they "cannot get done what they want using AI", before they ask to increase their headcount. Klarna Group plc CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said last month that his company has recently shrunk its workforce by around 40%, partly due to its investments in AI and also because of natural attrition. From that, we can gather that most of its workers who are leaving of their own accord aren't being replaced by humans. In his memo, Jassy outlined a vision of a future in which AI agents become more prevalent, automating many of the tedious tasks currently being performed by humans. He said these agents would free up human staff to take on more creative roles. "Agents will allow us to start almost everything from a more advanced starting point," he said. "We'lll be able to focus less on rote work and more on thinking strategically about how to improve customer experiences and invent new ones." But many of Amazon's employees aren't so convinced. Last month, in an article in the New York Times, some software engineers at the company revealed that AI has created a more "intensified work environment", in which they're expected to use the technology to boost productivity and achieve higher output goals. As a result, coding work is "becoming more routine, less thoughtful and, crucially, much faster paced," than before. Nevertheless, Amazon remains undeterred, and it has made some enormous investments in AI in recent years, including building out the vast data centers required to provide the computational resources for fleets of AI agents. In April , Jassy wrote in his annual letter to shareholders that he believes generative AI represents a "once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know". He stressed that the technology is already "saving companies lots of money", and will dramatically alter the way things are done in areas such as coding, financial services, search, shopping and elsewhere. "It's moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen," the CEO said.

Amazon chief warns white-collar staff their jobs are on the line

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy has told the technology giant's staff that the company will inevitably employer fewer people as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated and said white-collar workers need to improve their ability to use the new tools in order to keep their jobs. Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos in 2021 after building the company's massive cloud computing business, told staff in a memo that Amazon as already using AI in hundreds of ways, predicting that the workforce would be significantly different in the future as those uses increased.

Amazon CEO expects AI to shrink tech giant's workforce

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is the latest tech leader to predict a future in which fewer employees are doing more with artificial intelligence tools. The e-commerce giant "will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." Jassy said in a memo to employees that was shared publicly on Amazon's corporate blog. In the next few years, he expects Amazon's total corporate workforce to decline as efficiency gains from AI spread throughout the company. Jassy told employees to be more curious about AI, to experiment more with the tools available to them and to figure out "how to get more done with scrappier teams." Jassy's pitch for scrappier teams is a common theme among corporate giants lately. During recent rounds of layoffs for Starbucks and Microsoft, the companies cited the need for agile teams with fewer redundant roles and higher employee-to-manager ratios. But Microsoft and Starbucks haven't connected the dots between AI usage and fewer employees like Jassy's memo suggested. Other companies like e-commerce platform Shopify and sales software giant Salesforce have voiced similar sentiments to Amazon. Tech-focused news outlet The Verge reported in April that Shopify is requiring teams to show why a job can't be done using AI before they're given hiring approval. During an earnings call with analysts in May, Salesforce President Robin Washington said AI tools have reduced hiring needs for software engineers and customer service workers. Amazon is the second-largest employer in the U.S., with 1.56 million employees as of March, due in large part to its enormous network of warehouses. In 2023, Amazon reported it had roughly 350,000 corporate workers. The company has about 75,000 people based in the Puget Sound region. Amazon hasn't gone through a massive round of layoffs since 2023, when it cut 27,000 roles. But the company did lay off several hundred employees this year. Jassy's note about AI work trends potentially reducing its corporate head count was tucked into a string of his thoughts on AI. He said the generative AI is used in "virtually every corner of the company," from its online marketplace to the cloud computing products in Amazon Web Services. "I'm energized by our progress, excited about our plans ahead, and looking forward to partnering with you all as we change what's possible for our customers, partners, and how we work," Jassy wrote. It's not just customer-facing AI that Jassy was referring to. Like other tech companies, Amazon encourages its workers to experiment with the technology, especially agents, which are autonomous AI models that run throughout the internet doing the bidding of the user. Agents are the next frontier for tech companies and their AI products. Microsoft recently hosted a marquee conference dedicated to its vision of AI agents ruling the internet. But aside from the fear of agents replacing jobs, Microsoft introduced a new anxiety over AI use: overwork. In a follow-up published Tuesday to Microsoft's annual Work Trend Index, the company said there's data that shows productivity gains creeping into off-the-clock hours. Microsoft said more people are checking emails and messages in the mornings, evenings and weekends than in previous years. "AI offers a way out of the mire, especially if paired with a reimagined rhythm of work," Microsoft said. "Otherwise, we risk using AI to accelerate a broken system."

Amazon's CEO Tells Staff AI Could Lead to a Smaller Corporate Workforce

In February, Jassy said Amazon expects to spend $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, with the majority going toward AI infrastructure for Amazon Web Services. Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy said he expects Amazon to trim its corporate workforce over the next few years with the spread of artificial intelligence. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said in a memo to employees -- it was later published online -- Tuesday. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI." Jassy suggested AI agents could help accelerate innovation at Amazon by taking on rote work previously handled by human employees. The memo didn't discuss in further detail the number of jobs that might be affected. Amazon had nearly 1.6 million full- and part-time employees as of March 31, according to its latest quarterly results. Like many of its big tech peers, Amazon is allocating significant resources toward expanding its AI capacity. In February, Jassy said Amazon expects to spend more than $100 billion in capital expenditures this year, the "vast majority" of which would go to AI infrastructure for Amazon Web Services. Jassy in September told workers the company would be returning to five days a week of in-office work. Some big tech companies have lately sought to reduce their headcounts. Shares of Amazon fell less than 1% to close at $214.82 Tuesday, leaving the stock down about 2% for 2025.

Amazon's corporate workforce may shrink as AI takes over routine tasks

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that the rollout of generative AI and agents will lead to a reduction in the company's corporate workforce in the coming years. While AI is expected to automate tasks and reshape roles, experts anticipate a workforce reshuffling rather than mass unemployment. Amazon is implementing AI to enhance efficiency and customer experience across various internal operations.Rollout of generative AI and agents will reduce Amazon's total corporate workforce in the next few years, Andy Jassy, CEO of the online retailer said in a note to employees on Tuesday. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global workforce by automating routine and repetitive tasks, and industry leaders expect this to prompt a reduction or transformation of certain roles across industries. Despite uncertainties, many experts agree that AI will not lead to mass unemployment, but rather to a reshuffling of the workforce. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. Amazon had more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year. The company also hires temporary workers and independent contractors as needed. The company is using GenAI across internal operations to enhance efficiency and customer experience, Jassy said. He added that Amazon is using AI to optimise inventory and forecasting in its fulfillment network, upgrade its customer service chatbot and improve product detail pages. "Amazon is communicating a message we have been increasingly hearing from other technology companies - AI is progressing so fast in improving productivity that the need for hiring will diminish over time," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. "The main roles being enhanced right now are in software development, and that is where we are seeing the most pronounced slowdown in hiring." Microsoft has emphasised that AI will boost productivity, but it has also laid off thousands of employees, while Google too has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees in the past year. Other tech companies are increasingly using AI to write code for both their products and internal operations. (Reporting by Akash Sriram and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

Amazon CEO Says Generative AI Will Reduce Total Corporate Workforce - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon.Com Inc AMZN chief Andy Jassy in a blog post on Tuesday, highlighted the company's extensive leveraging of Generative AI to drive value. Technologies like Generative AI are rare and come about once-in-a-lifetime, completely transforming possibilities for customers and businesses, Jassy said, justifying its aggressive investment. He stated that Alexa+, the company's advanced Alexa personal assistant, is the first personal assistant that can take significant actions for customers while providing intelligent answers to virtually any question, citing its tens of millions of customers worldwide. Also Read: Amazon To Pour Nearly $100 Billion Into AI In 2025, Surpassing Microsoft And Alphabet Jassy stated that this AI-driven transformation might reduce the corporate workforce in the coming years due to increased efficiency. He recommended being curious about AI and educating yourself by attending workshops and training. He highlighted the huge impact of Gen AI and said that nearly half a million selling partners are using these services, and the listings they are creating are measurably better. Jassy wrote about how the company transformed advertising with AI, helping brands plan, onboard, create, and optimize campaigns. He said over 50,000 advertisers used these capabilities in the first quarter alone. Jassy highlighted Generative AI's crucial role within Amazon Web Services (AWS) for developers and in optimizing internal functions such as fulfillment and customer service. He also pointed to the development of AI agents to automate tasks and accelerate innovation. Amazon also restructured its Customer Service Chatbot with GenAI and assembled more intelligent and compelling product detail pages by leveraging GenAI. Jassy underscored Amazon's substantial investment in AI, expressing a firm belief in its capacity to alter work and daily life profoundly. He envisions a future where AI agents become ubiquitous, dramatically expanding the scope and pace of innovation for consumers. He said Amazon has over 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, which is a small fraction of what it will ultimately build. Earlier, Jassy highlighted the need for substantial capital to secure AI chips and build data centers, reiterating the need for large capital investments during the current period of "high demand" in order to remain competitive in the rapidly changing AI landscape. Price Action: AMZN stock is down 0.57% at $214.86 at the last check on Tuesday. Read Next: Amazon To Launch AI Reasoning Model In June, Reinforcing AWS's AI Dominance Photo via Shutterstock AMZNAmazon.com Inc$215.00-0.51%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum60.73Growth97.14Quality73.37Value49.29Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy: AI Skills Will Position Employees to Be Part of Smaller Company | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. Jassy added that Amazon's total corporate workforce is likely to shrink over the next few years as the company adopts AI, which he said is the most transformative technology to come along since the internet. "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company," Jassy said in the message. Jassy suggested that employees be curious about AI, educate themselves about it, use it wherever they can, and participate in their team's brainstorming sessions about how to use the technology to get more done. Amazon has already deployed AI in its Alexa+ personal assistant, AI shopping assistant, shopping features, independent seller services, advertising tools, coding tools and across its internal operations, Jassy said. Still, "we're at the very beginning," Jassy said, adding that Amazon expects that AI agents will change how people live and work and that the technology will play a significant role in the company's efforts to "operate like the world's largest start-up." Amazon currently has over 1,000 generative AI services and applications built or in progress, and expects to build many more than that, Jassy said. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done," Jassy said in the message to employees. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." The PYMNTS Intelligence report, "Workers Say Fears About GenAI Taking Their Jobs is Overblown," found that 54% of workers said that generative AI posed a "significant risk of widespread job displacement" and that 38% feared the technology could eventually lead to the elimination of their specific jobs. It was reported in May 2024 that tech workers were scrambling to add AI capabilities to their resumes as tech companies were trying to reposition themselves as AI firms.

Amazon CEO to Staff: AI Will Reduce Our Corporate Workforce

Marc Maron on Ending His Podcast and the Responsibility He Feels to His 'WTF' Listeners In a memo to employees extolling Amazon's use of generative AI, CEO Andy Jassy also briefly noted that it may lead to a reduction in the company's workforce. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," Jassy wrote in the July 17 memo. As of Dec. 2024, Amazon employed about 1,556,000 full-time and part-time staffers. Despite the potential job reductions, the memo also encouraged employees to get excited about the use of AI, telling them to "be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can, participate in your team's brainstorms to figure out how to invent for our customers more quickly and expansively, and how to get more done with scrappier teams." Thus far, Amazon has more than "1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built," according to the memo. This includes building the next generation Alexa personal assistant, an Amazon AI shopping assistant, Amazon shopping features, including a lens that allows shoppers to take a photo of an item and pull it up on the website, as well as recommended size, and in AI tools for advertisers. "While we've made a lot of progress, we're still at the relative beginning. There are a few reasons we believe this and want to go even faster," the memo reads. Jassy went on to say that "AI agents will change how we all work and live," and that there "will be billions of these agents, across every company and in every imaginable field." At Amazon, this will change the speed at which the company works and push the company to create new tools, he said. "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company," the memo reads.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy admits AI will 'reduce' corporate workforce

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy ominously warned Tuesday that he expects the rise of generative artificial intelligence to "reduce" the company's corporate workforce in the next few years. The Amazon boss, who replaced Jeff Bezos as CEO in 2021, said generative AI is a "once in a lifetime" technology that "should change the way our work is done" as the company integrates it into its business operations. As a result, Amazon will "need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said in lengthy memo to employees that was also posted on the company's website. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," Jassy added. Amazon had a corporate workforce of approximately 350,000 employees as December. Overall, the company had more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year, including at its warehouse and fulfillment centers. Jassy said Amazon already has more than 1,000 generative AI services or applications in the works, which will "small fraction of what we will ultimately build." Amazon's inventory management, customer service chatbot and product pages are likely to get an upgrade as a result of AI. Employees should "be curious about AI" and participate in efforts to learn "how to get more done with scrappier teams," he added. The remarks come as more AI leaders call out the likelihood that advancements in AI will shake up the labor market. Last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei raised alarms when he warned that executives and politicians should stop "sugar-coating" the mass layoffs that could occur in fields like tech, finance and law and be honest with workers. Amodei said he expects significant job losses in the next one to five years, with US unemployment potentially spiking to 20%, up from its current level of 4.2%. In a dire scenario, AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white collar jobs, he suggested. Amazon isn't the only company likely to experience a major workforce shakeup as a result of generative AI. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently said he expects AI to take on a bigger role within Meta's workforce. "Probably in 2025, we at Meta, as well as the other companies that are basically working on this, are going to have an AI that can effectively be a sort of mid-level engineer that you have at your company that can write code," Zuckerberg said during an appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. Elsewhere, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned in April 2023 that he expected "knowledge workers," such as writers, accountants, architects and software engineers, to be at risk.

Amazon CEO signals upcoming workforce cuts amid AI adoption By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy outlined the company's extensive integration of generative AI across its operations in a blog post Wednesday, while signaling potential workforce reductions as AI technology increases efficiency. In his message, Jassy described generative AI as a "once-in-a-lifetime" technology that is "completely changing what's possible for customers and businesses." He highlighted several AI implementations already in use, including Alexa+, which he called "meaningfully smarter" and "the first personal assistant that can take significant actions for customers." The CEO pointed to AI shopping features now used by "tens of millions of customers," including "Lens," which allows users to take pictures of items to find shopping results, and "Buy for Me," which enables purchasing from other merchant websites. He noted that nearly half a million selling partners are utilizing AI services to create product listings. For AWS customers, Amazon has developed custom silicon (Trainium2), services for building Foundation Models (SageMaker), and its own frontier model (Nova) to provide "leading intelligence at lower latency and cost." Jassy emphasized the company's belief in AI agents as transformative tools that will "change how we all work and live," describing them as software systems that perform tasks using natural language commands. "There will be billions of these agents, across every company and in every imaginable field," he wrote. While Amazon currently has over 1,000 generative AI services and applications built or in progress, Jassy indicated this represents "a small fraction of what we will ultimately build." He stated that as AI becomes more integrated, "we will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today," adding that "in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively." Jassy encouraged employees to embrace AI through education, experimentation, and participation in team brainstorming sessions, comparing the current moment to his early days at Amazon in 1997 when teams were leaner but highly ambitious.

Amazon CEO Says AI Will Lead to Job Cuts

Amazon.com Chief Executive Andrew Jassy expects the e-commerce conglomerate will reduce its workforce because of artificial intelligence developments. Jassy said Tuesday that generative AI and agents are increasingly capable of doing more tasks at Amazon, which will impact the number and types of jobs human workers have in the next few years. "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce." Jassy said he expects AI agents will take care of rote work to speed up the rate of innovation. "Agents will allow us to start almost everything from a more advanced starting point," he said. Amazon has more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that is a small fraction of what the technology giant aims to ultimately build, Jassy said. The company has already added AI elements to its Alexa personal assistant and its advertising. Amazon has plans to spend more than $100 billion over the next decade on data centers, which fuel AI. It has also invested billions in the AI startup Anthropic. Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com

Amazon's corporate workforce may shrink as AI takes over routine tasks

(Reuters) -Rollout of generative AI and agents will reduce Amazon's total corporate workforce in the next few years, Andy Jassy, CEO of the online retailer said in a note to employees on Tuesday. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global workforce by automating routine and repetitive tasks, and industry leaders expect this to prompt a reduction or transformation of certain roles across industries. Despite uncertainties, many experts agree that AI will not lead to mass unemployment, but rather to a reshuffling of the workforce. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy said. Amazon had more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees at the end of last year. The company also hires temporary workers and independent contractors as needed. The company is using GenAI across internal operations to enhance efficiency and customer experience, Jassy said. He added that Amazon is using AI to optimize inventory and forecasting in its fulfillment network, upgrade its customer service chatbot and improve product detail pages. "Amazon is communicating a message we have been increasingly hearing from other technology companies - AI is progressing so fast in improving productivity that the need for hiring will diminish over time," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria. "The main roles being enhanced right now are in software development, and that is where we are seeing the most pronounced slowdown in hiring." Microsoft has emphasized that AI will boost productivity, but it has also laid off thousands of employees, while Google too has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees in the past year. Other tech companies are increasingly using AI to write code for both their products and internal operations. (Reporting by Akash Sriram and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

Amazon CEO says artificial intelligence will result in job losses

(Alliance News) - Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Andy Jassy on Monday said the company's workforce will decline in the coming years as it adopts more generative artificial intelligence tools and agents. In a letter to employees, Jassy said: "As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs." The Amazon boss said it's "hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." He called on employees to be "curious about AI, educate yourself." "Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company," he added. Jassy said technologies like generative AI are rare; they come about once-in-a-lifetime, and completely change what's possible for customers and businesses. Shares in Amazon closed down 0.6% at USD214.82 on Tuesday in New York Comments and questions to newsroom@alliancenews.com Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon to cut more jobs as AI boosts efficiency, says CEO Andy Jassy

This highlights a bigger change happening in many industries, where companies are considering replacing human roles with AI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has told employees that the company will reduce more workforce in the coming years as it leans further into the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency. In a recent memo, Jassy said Amazon is using generative AI across nearly every area of its business. While the technology is helping the company build better services and operate faster, it's also changing the nature of many jobs. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy wrote in the memo shared to the employees. "It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company." For those unaware, Amazon has reportedly already cut over 27,000 jobs since 2022 and most recently cut jobs across its devices and services group and its books division. Also read: Meta offered $100 mn signing bonuses to poach OpenAI employees, says Sam Altman In the memo, Jassy explained that the new wave of changes will be driven by the growing use of AI-powered tools that automate tasks and speed up innovation. For example, Amazon's next-gen Alexa, called Alexa+, now handles complex tasks for users instead of just answering questions. Its AI shopping assistant helps millions of customers discover products, and features like 'Lens' allow users to take a picture of an item to find it online. Jassy said Amazon already has more than 1,000 AI-related services and applications either built or in progress. "We're going to lean in further in the coming months," he added. Amazon CEO's memo highlights a bigger change happening in many industries, where companies are considering replacing human roles with AI.