Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks during a keynote address at AWS re:Invent 2024, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 3, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Noah Berger | Getty Images
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company’s corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it adopts more generative artificial intelligence tools and agents.
“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 a memo to employees. “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 wrote that employees should learn how to use AI tools and experiment and figure out “how to get more done with scrappier teams.”
The directive comes as Amazon has laid off more than 27,000 employees since 2022 and made several cuts this year. Amazon cut about 200 employees in its North America stores unit in January and a further 100 in its devices and services unit.
Amazon had 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees in its global workforce as of the end of March, according to financial filings. The company also employs temporary workers in its warehouse operations, along with some contractors.
Amazon is using generative AI broadly across its internal operations, including in its fulfillment network where generative AI is being deployed to assist with inventory placement, demand forecasting and the efficiency of warehouse robots, Jassy said.
Other tech companies have made similar proclamations about how AI stands to transform their workforces. In April, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said employees will be expected to prove why they “cannot get what they want done using AI” before asking for more headcount and resources. And last month, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company has shrunk its headcount by 40%, in part due to investments in AI and natural attrition in its workforce.
Amazon has made big investments in AI, launching a flurry of its own products and rapidly building out data centers to meet surging demand for the technology.
In his most recent letter to shareholders, Jassy called generative AI a “once-in-a-lifetime reinvention of everything we know.” He added that the technology is “saving companies lots of money,” and stands to shift the norms in coding, search, financial services, shopping and other areas.
“It’s moving faster than almost anything technology has ever seen,” Jassy said.
