Amazon CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged that AI will replace human workers in some roles while simultaneously creating new, more “interesting” jobs during a CNBC interview this week. His comments come as Amazon has laid off around 27,000 workers since early 2022 while investing heavily in AI technologies, reflecting a broader trend among tech giants balancing workforce reductions with AI spending.
What you should know: Jassy’s remarks represent a candid admission from a major tech leader about AI’s impact on employment, countering typical industry messaging that downplays job displacement concerns.
- “We’re going to hire more people in AI, more people in robotics, and there will be other jobs…that we’ll hire [for] over time, too,” Jassy told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
- In an internal memo last month, Jassy told Amazon employees that AI will make some company jobs redundant while creating demand for human labor in other categories.
- “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.
The big picture: Amazon’s AI investments are accelerating across multiple business areas, with new tools launching regularly to automate various functions.
- In February, Amazon unveiled Alexa+, its new AI-powered assistant.
- Last month, the company launched its Video Generator platform for advertisers to create video ads from still product images.
- Just last week, Amazon announced DeepFleet, a foundation model designed to coordinate its massive fleet of fulfillment center robots.
Industry pattern: Other tech leaders are offering similar reassurances about AI’s job impact while their companies reduce headcounts.
- OpenAI’s Sam Altman wrote last month that while AI will cause “whole classes of jobs” to disappear, this will be worthwhile due to the massive wealth the technology will generate.
- Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said the company has “no plan” to hire fewer engineers next year than this year.
- Microsoft will reportedly lay off around 4% of its global workforce (approximately 224,000 employees) as it increases AI spending.
AI agents taking center stage: Jassy specifically highlighted AI agents as a particularly powerful application that can autonomously formulate plans and coordinate with one another.
- Leading tech companies have been promoting agents with considerable enthusiasm in recent months, driven partly by the need to show tangible returns on massive AI investments.
- A recent Ernst & Young survey of 500 tech leaders found that close to half are actively integrating AI agents across their organizations.
- The same survey found that 84% of tech leaders plan to expand their workforce over the next six months, suggesting continued hiring despite automation concerns.
In plain English: AI agents are like digital assistants that can think through problems, make plans, and work together to accomplish goals—unlike basic chatbots that just answer questions. Think of them as software programs that can browse the web, use different tools, and coordinate with other AI systems to complete complex tasks without human oversight.
Why this matters: Jassy’s frank acknowledgment of job displacement provides rare transparency from a tech executive about AI’s real workforce impacts, even as his company continues to invest billions in the technology while reducing its human workforce.
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