Amazon warns AI will cut white collar jobs in coming years. CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo saying the company is ramping up AI use in logistics and other areas to slash costs. That means fewer workers doing current roles and a shift to new job types.
The company expects a reduced corporate workforce as AI automates tasks. Jassy admitted the exact impact is unclear but the trend is set.
“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.”
Amazon faces investor pressure to show AI can drive efficiencies. The ecommerce giant plans to spend about $100 billion this year, mostly on AI infrastructure. The fight for AI dominance pits Amazon against Google and Microsoft as they court cloud profits through Amazon Web Services.
The announcement comes after Amazon cut 27,000 roles in 2023 and hundreds more in AWS layoffs in 2024. Jassy also pledged to flatten management and eliminate bureaucracy.
Other tech leaders stay quiet on AI-related job cuts. Microsoft recently cut 3% of its workforce but claimed AI wasn’t the cause, despite CEO Satya Nadella praising AI’s coding role.
“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 CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April.
Amazon shares are down about 2.5% this year amid geopolitical risks and trade tensions. The new AI push signals the company’s shift to automation will impact jobs heavily in the near term.
