Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has called on staff to embrace artificial intelligence (AI). At the same time, he warned that the technology is likely to lead to fewer staff at the American company in the coming years.
“We will need fewer people for some tasks, and more people for others,” Jassy writes in a message to staff seen by BBC News. “In the long term, we expect the total workforce to shrink due to wider deployment of AI.”
Amazon, which employed more than 1.5 million people worldwide at the end of 2024, is the largest employer in the US after Walmart. Approximately 350,000 people have office jobs at the company.
According to Jassy, AI will soon take over many routine tasks. Employees who are curious about AI and embrace the changes are therefore, according to him, in the right place within Amazon.
In the tech sector, more large companies have indicated that AI could significantly reduce the workforce. Dario Amodei, CEO of the AI company Anthropic, told the news website Axios last month that artificial intelligence could take over half of the starter functions.
It is also expected in the Dutch ICT sector that the number of vacancies will decrease in the coming years due to the rise of AI. This is completely contrary to the trend of growing staff shortages elsewhere in the labor market. While the number of vocational graduates in ICT is likely to increase in the coming years, fewer jobs will be added.