Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said Tuesday he expects that the tech giant will have a smaller workforce as generative AI takes over more tasks. Amazon stock slipped in afternoon trades.
In a letter to employees, Jassy said generative AI is already changing the way that the e-commerce and cloud-computing company is doing business.
"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," Jassy wrote. "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 said Amazon has more than 1,000 generative AI services or applications in progress but that is a "fraction" of what the company hopes to build.
AI agents, Jassy said, "will change how we all work and live." That view is powering the company's significant investments in the technology. Amazon has told investors that it expects to spend $100 billion on capital expenditures this year, focused mostly on data centers capable of powering its AI ambitions.
Jassy's comments come amid growing concern that AI could lead to broader job displacement. Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI startup Anthropic, recently told Axios that he believes AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10%-20% over the next five years.
Amazon has invested $8 billion into Anthropic, which makes the Claude AI chatbot. Meanwhile, a New York Times report late last month detailed how AI had already changed the culture among Amazon coders.
Amazon Stock Trades Lower
Jassy's comments come on a down day for Amazon stock. Shares are down a half-percent at 214.86, after gaining 1.7% on Monday.
Amazon recently broke out above a 214.84 cup-with-handle buy point and has hovered near that level since.
Overall, Amazon stock is down about 2% year to date. Investors are generally positive on Amazon's AI potential. But concerns about tariffs sent the stock tumbling earlier this year, with Amazon bouncing back in recent weeks.
