Even the people building AI can't keep their jobs safe from it
Brendan McDermid/REUTERS
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Artificial intelligence's impact is so big that even the people building it aren't safe.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI will change the tech giant's workflow and generate "efficiency gains" that will ultimately "reduce our total corporate workforce."
Put more bluntly: AI means we'll need less of you to keep things running.
The message wasn't well received by many Amazon employees, BI's Eugene Kim reports. "There is nothing more motivating on a Tuesday than reading that your job will be replaced by AI in a few years," one person wrote in an internal Slack channel viewed by Eugene.
Tech executives haven't been shy about firing off their predictions regarding AI's impact on the labor market this year, as Sarah E. Needleman has previously covered. But Jassy is one of the first Big Tech CEOs to discuss AI's impact on his own workforce.
Jassy's statement, which you can read in full here, was light on specifics about when or where those cuts might occur beyond saying it'll happen "in the next few years." Instead, he highlighted Amazon's progress with AI and the critical role he sees AI agents playing in its future.
These AI-powered assistants will "change the scope and speed" at which Amazon can work and "allow us to start almost everything from a more advanced starting point," Jassy wrote.
Ultimately, AI agents are all about allowing people to work more efficiently. And if the past few years have taught us anything, the tech industry loves efficiency. Career coaches told BI that Jassy's advice isn't just an aspiration — it's realistic.
So while Amazon might be the first Big Tech company to declare AI will lead to job cuts, it likely won't be the last.
So what should Amazonians — their term, not mine — do to prepare?
Jassy's memo mentioned multiple divisions already leveraging AI agents, and the intent to use even more of them in other areas. With that in mind, it's safe to assume almost every corner of Amazon could be upended by AI and face job cuts.
That won't soothe any nerves, but Jassy did offer some advice. He encouraged employees to educate themselves on AI and develop ways to streamline things using the tech.
"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.
Translation: Don't think you can just stick your head in the sand, and this will all go away.
That advice is bound to rub some people the wrong way. There's no shortage of ethical concerns about using AI, especially in the workplace.
But according to Jassy, ignoring it won't get you very far.
"Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they're coming, and coming fast," he added.
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