Amazon’s CEO Makes Stance Clear: ‘In the Next Few Years, We Expect That AI Will Reduce Our Total Corporate Workforce’

In its Future of Jobs Report 2025, the World Economic Forum predicted that by 2030, 92 million jobs would be displaced due to the impact of AI on the labor market. This suggests that while some of today’s jobs may disappear, new ones will emerge in their place.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently addressed his employees, saying that the company’s workforce will experience a transformation caused by AI automation.

Amazon won’t be the same. According to Jassy, Amazon will undergo significant changes in the coming years. To remain competitive, the company’s structure must evolve beyond its current state. “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 said in an official statement.

In other words, Jassy believes that while AI may displace certain jobs, it won’t result in a net loss of employment within Amazon’s workforce. Instead, it’ll compel the company to restructure its departments, resulting in reduced staff in some areas and increased hiring in others.

The elephant in the room. The theory of job displacement at Amazon raises questions that even the company’s CEO can’t fully address: How quickly will this change occur? Will Amazon be able to maintain a balanced workforce?

“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,” Jassy explained. According to Statista, Amazon currently employs 1.56 million people worldwide, making it the second-largest private employer in the U.S. after Walmart.

Changes in warehouses. Amazon faced a similar situation when it started automating its logistics centers, where robots replaced employees who were responsible for retrieving products. However, as these automated systems were implemented, Amazon created new positions in areas such as order preparation, shipping, maintenance, and engineering.

According to company data, this automation ultimately required 30% more employees for its logistics centers. As is the case now, the challenge then was that while many jobs were eliminated quickly due to the arrival of robots, new positions were created gradually. This resulted in a temporary shortfall in employment.

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Unfair changes. Another issue raised by Amazon’s projections is that the new jobs created aren’t equivalent to those that will be lost. For example, a warehouse employee may not be able to transition into a role focused on developing a new AI feature for the Amazon store.

In light of this, the CEO encouraged employees to embrace the change: “Be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can.” In his statement, Jassy emphasized that “the most transformative technology since the Internet is here.” He added, “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.”

To paraphrase a popular saying that has circulated on the Internet in recent years, AI won’t take your job; someone who knows how to use it will.

If customer behavior changes, companies must adapt. According to Jassy, AI “will change how we all work and live.” This means that companies must adjust their structures to keep pace with these changes. Jassy highlighted the evolving habits of users in how they search for and purchase products, which are already being influenced by AI technologies.

Amazon’s own AI-driven tools, like Alexa+, must also evolve in response to innovations from other companies. Examples include Google Lens and the Circle to Search feature, as well as AI-infused search engines like AI Overview that Google has integrated into its browser. As user search behaviors shift, Amazon will have to adapt. According to Jassy, this will result in internal transformations, changing the way we work and live in every company and field imaginable.

Job cuts. Despite the announcement of significant changes to Amazon's workforce in the coming years, the company has already been restructuring its employee base since 2022. According to Laysoff.fyi, this process has already led to the loss of 27,940 jobs.

Jassy’s announcement merely confirms that this restructuring will likely become ongoing, as Amazon continues to adapt its workforce to the needs and opportunities presented by AI.

Image | Amazon

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