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

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company's firm workforce volition shrink successful the coming years arsenic it adopts much generative artificial intelligence tools and agents.

"We volition request less radical doing immoderate of the jobs that are being done today, and much radical doing different types of jobs," Jassy said successful a memo to employees. "It's hard to cognize precisely wherever this nets retired implicit time, but successful the adjacent fewer years, we expect that this volition trim our full firm workforce."

Jassy wrote that employees should larn however to usage AI tools and experimentation and fig retired "how to get much done with scrappier teams."

The directive comes arsenic Amazon has laid off much than 27,000 employees since 2022 and made respective cuts this year. Amazon chopped astir 200 employees successful its North America stores unit successful January and a further 100 successful its devices and services portion successful May.

Amazon had 1.56 cardinal full-time and part-time employees successful its planetary workforce arsenic of the extremity of March, according to fiscal filings. The institution besides employs impermanent workers successful its warehouse operations, on with immoderate contractors.

Amazon is utilizing generative AI broadly crossed its interior operations, including successful its fulfillment web wherever generative AI is being deployed to assistance with inventory placement, request forecasting and the ratio of warehouse robots, Jassy said.

Other tech companies person made akin proclamations astir however AI stands to alteration their workforces. In April, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said employees volition beryllium expected to beryllium wherefore they "cannot get what they privation done utilizing AI" earlier asking for much headcount and resources.

Last month, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the institution has shrunk its headcount by 40%, successful portion owed to investments successful AI and earthy attrition successful its workforce.

Amazon has made large investments successful AI, launching a flurry of its ain products and rapidly gathering retired information centers to conscionable surging request for the technology.

In his astir caller missive to shareholders, Jassy called generative AI a "once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know." He added that the exertion is "saving companies tons of money," and stands to displacement the norms successful coding, search, fiscal services, buying and different areas.

"It's moving faster than astir thing exertion has ever seen," Jassy said Tuesday.