AI to shrink white-collar workforce in the years ahead, Amazon CEO warns

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy cautions that AI will streamline operations, cut costs, and reduce the need for certain corporate roles as the company ramps up its investment in automation

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has warned employees that artificial intelligence will lead to job losses among its white-collar workforce over the next few years, the Financial Times reported. The message came via an internal memo sent on Tuesday, in which Jassy outlined the growing integration of AI across the company’s operations, particularly in its logistics infrastructure. 

“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. “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.” 

The memo underscores Amazon’s focus on using AI to improve operational efficiency and cut costs — an expectation increasingly shared by investors as tech giants ramp up AI investments.   

  

Amazon faces market pressures, AI competition

The company’s share price has declined around 2.5 per cent so far this year, amid broader pressure from investors to demonstrate returns on AI investments. Amazon also contends with external risks, including uncertainties around President Donald Trump’s trade policies, which could impact global operations. 

In the current financial year, Amazon has committed nearly $100 billion in investments, with a significant portion earmarked for AI infrastructure. The company is in a heated race with rivals like Microsoft and Google to secure dominance in the AI space, especially in cloud computing through Amazon Web Services (AWS).   

 

Layoffs part of restructuring strategy

The latest AI warning comes on the heels of significant restructuring. In 2023, Amazon eliminated 27,000 positions in two waves of layoffs, and AWS cut several hundred roles in 2024. Last year, Jassy had pledged to streamline the company’s structure, reduce bureaucracy, and cut down on middle management layers, the news report said. 

While many tech leaders have been hesitant to explicitly link AI to job cuts, Amazon’s statement marks a departure from that trend. Most executives have instead focused on AI’s potential to boost productivity. 

Microsoft, for example, laid off 3 per cent of its global workforce in May. According to state filings, the layoffs affected software engineers most heavily at the company’s Washington headquarters. However, Microsoft maintained that the cuts were not a direct result of AI adoption, the news report said. 

Still, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has acknowledged AI’s growing role in code development. “I’d say maybe 20 per cent, 30 per cent of the code that is inside of our repos today and some of our projects are probably all written by software,” Nadella told Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April.