AI is reshaping Amazon jobs, and as unsurprised as we are at the news, the reactions to the announcement have come with considerable disappointment. Amazon has never been one to disguise or downplay its utilization of advanced technology and robotics within its organization, and has made considerable advancements in that regard. Now, in a memo to workers that was publicly shared on the website, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy laid out his thoughts on AI and how it was likely that AI agents could be replacing its corporate workers.
The memo largely focused on how Amazon was utilizing AI in its many services, flaunting just how much the company has embraced this up-and-coming technology. Towards the end, however, the Amazon CEO’s comments on AI touched on how the technology was set to change the way the company worked, altering the need for as many workers as it employs today. “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 explained.
Amazon isn’t plotting a complete replacement of its workforce with AI, but there is a chance that many jobs will soon become redundant. (Image: Pexels)
AI Is Reshaping Amazon Jobs As the Company Sets Its Sights on Expanding AI Services
Over the years, Amazon has swiftly grown to become a force to be reckoned with, branching out from being just an e-commerce platform to providing products and services for a diverse base of consumers and clients. In many ways, its growth has been unparalleled, and this is largely thanks to its adoption of technology and its ability to preemptively develop services where the demand is growing.
Amazon’s investments in robotics for its warehouses have been one of the most frequently discussed uses of these machines, and the company is always advancing in its ability to not only adopt the technology but also proliferate it. Amazon’s generative AI investments are no different. Unfortunately, this fanaticism over AI will mean corporate job cuts at Amazon. Eventually, non-corporate roles could be affected as well.
Amazon Goes All-In on Artificial Intelligence
From the offer of AI assistant Alexa+ for its customers to its advancements in AI-supported advertising for its clients, Amazon has built up an arsenal of AI tools already, and it doesn’t plan on stopping here. While expanding on the many ways that artificial intelligence has already been embedded into its systems, Jassy also laid out the many ways the organization could continue to rely on its capabilities.
“Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they’re coming, and coming fast,” he explained, and while it was meant to be an uplifting promise, one can’t help but see it as an ominous warning.
“Today, we have over 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but at our scale, that’s a small fraction of what we will ultimately build. We’re going to lean in further in the coming months. We’re going to make it much easier to build agents, and then build (or partner) on several new agents across all of our business units and G&A areas,” Jassy said, with regard to his plans for AI at Amazon.
How AI is Reshaping Jobs at Amazon
Amazon’s generative AI update was focused more on the future of AI and the company’s commitment to being at the forefront of the tech industry in leading the change. However, workers were largely focused on the confidence with which Jassy claimed that AI would be reshaping Amazon jobs. While the memo didn’t explicitly ask workers to clutch their pearls in fear of losing their positions at the organization, it appears to have had the same effect nonetheless.
“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 added in the post. While the statement didn’t mention more corporate layoffs at Amazon in 2025, it did allude to the fact that some roles would become redundant while other new jobs would become more central to Amazon’s operations over time.
In the next few years, Amazon expects to see AI agents replacing at least some of its workers in a drive for efficiency.
Amazon Asks Employees To Get Familiar With AI
As much as the announcement fills many with a sense of doom and gloom, Amazon is right in asserting that AI is the future, and it will be easier to stay employed if you learn to navigate your way through it. Jassy’s memo asked workers to be more curious and more active in understanding and experimenting with AI, applying it in new ways to aid customers and get more done with “scrappier” teams.
He also referred to agents as future “teammates,” and this is a shift in mindset that workers in every industry have to learn to get comfortable with. Amazon’s CEO believes that with greater adoption, there is rooms for work to become more engaging with the use of AI, “If we build and leverage the right agents, it’s going to rapidly accelerate our ability to make customers lives easier and better every day, and it’s going to make our jobs even more exciting and fun than they are today.”
As much as workers might be resistant to the idea, this is good advice. Entry-level jobs are already shrinking thanks to AI tools, and as the technology grows more refined, senior corporate jobs might be similarly cut because of AI. Those who understand the technology can play the role of its operators instead, as some supervision and involvement will be necessary despite the advancements.
Artificial Intelligence Is Here to Stay
The Amazon CEO’s AI comments might have been disheartening rather than inspiring, but the sentiment expressed in the letter is being echoed across industries. Duolingo made a similar show of its AI tools, publicizing how efficiently it was able to replace human labor with AI. The language-learning company also indicated that it was going to encourage workers to experiment with AI more to see how it could be further incorporated into the organization.
These announcements were not well-received, leaving a considerable dent in the company’s reputation. Duolingo eventually tried to retract its statement, with its CEO explaining that it would still continue to hire workers for its organization, but many don’t trust the platform any longer. Unfortunately, Amazon and Duolingo aren’t the only ones asking their workers to do more with AI and cease asking for a bigger team—the change has been witnessed across organizations.
We don’t expect to see Amazon face as much resistance over its admission of how AI is reshaping jobs at the company, but there will be some disgruntled workers unwilling to settle down. As intimidating as it can be to consider the full scale of AI and what it means for the world and how we operate, there is room to adapt and learn how to make the tool work for you instead of against you. AI may replace some workers, but there is likely to be room for jobs in newer roles and industries. Workers who know how to utilize AI can still come out on top.
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