Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shared his thoughts on generative artificial intelligence Tuesday and said it could lead to a reduction in its corporate workforce over the next few years.
“Today, in virtually every corner of the company, we’re using generative AI to make customers lives better and easier,” Jassy said in a memo shared first with Amazon employees and then the public.
Generative AI is used to create new content.
The executive said Amazon is “investing quite expansively” in generative AI and listed several projects such as Alexa+ that will be able to provide “intelligent answers to virtually any question.”
Amazon is also using generative AI in its internal operations, Jassy said, adding, “In our fulfillment network, we’re using AI to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots—all of which have improved cost to serve and delivery speed.”
He said the company has more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications either in progress or already built.
But all this innovative work will come at a cost to workers amid fears AI will replace human jobs.
“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 wrote in the memo.
He continued: “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.”
It’s unclear how many workers are expected to be replaced by AI and when. When The Independent reached out to Amazon for comment, it did not give any specific numbers.
People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon doesn’t expect to have mass layoffs soon.
Amazon laid off more than 18,000 employees in 2022 and 2023, the Journal previously reported. Those cuts were focused on its devices business, recruiting and retail operations, according to the publication.
The company employed more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time workers as of last December.
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