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

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.