Jeff Bezos said Amazon one day Day 1 forever. It will always strive in innovation, unlike Day 2With a stasis and smells stagnant (we look at you, Nintendo).
Twenty-eight years after Andy Jassy joined the company as deputy product manager, the current CEO has just noted that Day 1 will involve fewer humans in the building. In a memo on June 17, made public on Amazon’s own site, Jassy told staff that the rise of generative “agents” would soon reshave the work of white passes … and will reduce the company’s head account which supports the second private employer in the world.
“”We will need fewer people who make some of the jobs that are made today“He wrote, adding that efficiency wins”will reduce our total business workforceIn the coming years.
What Jassy really said
Amazon already has more than a thousand generative-AI in flight projects, from the rewriting of the copy of ad to the forecast of shoe sizes. Jassy has formulated the next step as an “agentic future”: boots software that is looking for, code and make decisions with a minimum of surveillance. These agents, he argued, release humans to think strategically-but they also make certain redundant roles. The CEO has urged staff to “educate you” through AI internal workshops if he wants to remain impactful.
What is the size of the cuts?
Amazon’s pay is around 1.5 million worldwide, including around 350,000 corporate employees in terms of products, marketing and software engineering. If even five percent of these office jobs disappear, it is 17,500 roles. Analysts warn that the company did not give specific figures, but Gil Luria at DA Davidson told Reuters that AI advanced so quickly that “the need to hire will decrease over time”, in particular in the development of software, where Amazon has already slowed down recruitment.
Amazon pours billions in data centers adapted to AI, producing personalized silicon such as Trainium2and on the move Alexa +A reworked vocal assistant who can perform purchasing tasks on your behalf.
In its execution network, the algorithms now decide where to store your new phone box before even click on “Buy”, delivery times and operating costs. The Customer Service Chatbots, once a source of memes, were rebuilt on models of large languages which remain polite even after the tenth request “to speak to a human”. Each success strengthens Jassy’s point of view according to which lean teams can get out of those who get rid of.
Echo effect through technology
Jassy is not alone. Five days before the flight of his service note, the director general of BT warned the British staff of “deeper employment cuts” as IA matures. Microsoft aligned thousands of pink sheets in its sales force while marking a year of capital expenses of $ 80 billion that revolves around AI data centers. Google has quietly lost hundreds of roles since January. Each company swears that new positions will flower around automatic learning pipelines, but short -term mathematics always subtracts more than it adds.
Macroeconomic studies reinforce this nauseating feeling. THE International Monetary Fund The figures 60% of jobs in advanced economies are “exposed” to AI; Half could see wages or cut tasks. The OECD, by examining the detailed breakdowns of the tasks, explains that lawyers, doctors and financing pros risk a higher risk than plumbers or nurses, overthrowing the usual story on automation that strikes the work in blue collar first.
A study focused on the United Kingdom of Tony Blair Institute Complaints up to three million jobs in the private sector could be moved, although new roles can limit net loss. Exchange the Jack Union for the stars and scratches and the pattern is largely similar.
So what should workers do?
At Amazon, the official response is fast upskill. The company offers crash lessons rapid engineering and an internal certification for staff who can build simple AI agents. Recruiters say that demand is already drawing up people who can keep large models on the right side of biases, designing more efficient GPUs, or Integrate AI safely in warehouse robots. In short: jobs do not disappear; They are in good shape.
Like the prototype of the sewing machine by Barthélemy Thimonnier in 1830 raised concerns among the tailors and manufacturers of Mantua – to the point where his workshop was located burn-, AI is a direct threat to a large percentage of workers with white collar. Two centuries later, however, humanity is dressed in clothes sewn in the machine … and few people aspire at a time when you had to hide your wardrobe.
