Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday that the company expects artificial intelligence “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains” over time.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people do other types of jobs,” Jassy added in a memo to Amazon’s workforce.
The CEO of the country’s second-largest retailer and employer said Amazon is using generative AI “in virtually every corner of the company.”
Amazon employs more than 1.5 million people worldwide, according its most recent annual report.
This year, Amazon plans to spend $100 billion to expand AI services and data centers that power them, up from $83 billion last year.
Jassy said he believes so-called “A.I. agents” will “change how we all work and live.” While “many of these agents have yet to be built,” he said, “they’re coming, and fast.”
He continued by saying that they will “change the scope and speed at which we can innovate for customers.”
Amazon currently has more than a thousand AI services and applications running inside the company or in progress of being built.
Jassy’s comments Tuesday will likely invoke fears that many corporate workers have had as artificial intelligence captures the eye of efficiency-minded executives across corporate America. A recent study from Bloomberg Intelligence said that AI could replace up to 200,000 banking jobs.
Artificial intelligence has also been shown to be effective at coding for software programs.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.