Amazon seems to be soft-launching its subsequent spherical of layoffs. In a message to employees shared Tuesday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy talked extremely of the corporate’s embrace of synthetic intelligence instruments throughout its firm, and stated that it’s going to finally “scale back our complete company workforce as we get effectivity positive aspects” over time. That’s solely barely veiled company converse for “prepare to get replaced.”
Jassy known as generative AI a “once-in-a-lifetime” know-how that can change the best way the corporate operates, and stated Amazon is already utilizing it in “just about each nook of the corporate.” Based on Jassy, Amazon already has over 1,000 Generative AI providers and purposes in progress or constructed, and stated, “that’s a small fraction of what we’ll finally construct.” So it’s clear the corporate is all in on AI. Amazon beforehand stated it will commit $100 billion to investing in AI technologies this yr.
As for people? Effectively, it appears Amazon shouldn’t be so dedicated to them long-term. Jassy instructed the corporate’s 1.5 million workers that generative AI will “change the best way our work is completed,” and stated that the corporate will finally “want fewer folks doing among the jobs which are being carried out in the present day, and extra folks doing different sorts of jobs.”
The underlying message: you would possibly quickly be out of labor. “It’s onerous to know precisely the place this nets out over time, however within the subsequent few years, we count on that this can scale back our complete company workforce as we get effectivity positive aspects from utilizing AI extensively throughout the corporate,” Jassy wrote.
The CEO did supply his employees, a few of whom are possible questioning simply how lengthy they’ll be employed, how you can probably survive the subsequent spherical of layoffs (or, possibly extra possible, assist prepare their future replacements). “As we undergo this transformation collectively, be inquisitive about AI, educate your self, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI every time you may, take part in your crew’s brainstorms to determine how you can invent for our clients extra shortly and expansively, and how you can get extra carried out with scrappier groups.”
Amazon has been within the technique of stripping its workforce all the way down to the bones in departments it appears to care much less about. The corporate cut about 100 people from its gadgets and providers crew earlier this yr, and across the identical quantity from its books department. Per CNBC, it has laid off about 27,000 folks since 2022 and has its eyes on additional cuts.
It’s onerous to take a look at Jassy’s AI-forward message as a lot else apart from an indicator that extra layoffs are simply across the nook. It’s attainable the AI hype is only a cynical try and place itself as being an trade chief when the actual aim is reducing salaries to spice up inventory value. It wouldn’t be the primary firm to attempt to go all-in on AI on the expense of human labor. Earlier this yr, Klarna introduced it was bringing back human customer service representatives after attempting to go away the duty to AI after discovering the outcomes aren’t nice and other people don’t actually like coping with AI brokers.
