AI isn't all fate and darkness for work, said Andy Jassy of Amazon.
In an interview with CNBC released Monday, Amazon CEO viewed AI as “the most transformative technology of our life.” He said it would change things not only for Amazon customers but for employees as well.
Jassy said AI Technologies will create jobs in at least two areas of the company.
“With each technological change, fewer people do some of the jobs that technology actually starts to automate,” he said. “Are there any other jobs? We're going to hire more people with AI and more people with robotics. And there will be other jobs that technology hopes you can make it higher for you to hire over time.”
Jassy said AI agents who perform tasks such as coding, research, analysis and spreadsheet work will also change the nature of all employees' work.
“They don't have to do that much memorization work,” he said. “Everyone can start all tasks at a more advanced starting spot.”
On LinkedIn Amazon has added at least 500 open rolls worldwide to its position over the past month, along with the keyword “Robotics.” The roles will lead to the role of a senior applied scientist in addition to internships.
Job descriptions for senior applied scientists at Amazon Robotics include tasks such as “Developing machine learning capabilities and infrastructure for robot recognition and movement” and “Building visualization tools for analysis and debugging of robot behavior.”
Jassy's comments answered questions about the June 17 memo that outlined how AI changes Company labor.
“It's difficult to know exactly where this will go online over time, but we expect this to reduce the total corporate workforce over the next few years, as it will provide greater efficiency with widespread use of AI across the company,” he writes.
Some Amazon employees were not happy with Jassy's message. Inside the slack channel, some people have looked at it as a layoff warning, while others have seen it as a warning about its layoffs, reported Business Insider.
“On Tuesday, there's nothing more motivated than reading your work will be replaced by AI in a few years,” one person wrote in Slack.
According to its website, Amazon employs around 1.5 million workers, and has cut approximately 28,000 jobs per layoff since its launch in 2022.
From Jassy's note and an interview on Monday, it is unclear whether some of the AI-driven work changes will affect Amazon's employees.
Other tech CEOs have raised alarms for AI-related job cuts, particularly for white-collar and entry-level roles.
In April, Micha Kaufman, CEO and founder of Freelance-Job Site Fiverr, wrote in an email to employees:
In late May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suggested that AI could wipe out half of all entry levels White-collar work.
“As producers of this technology, we have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what's coming,” Amodei told Axios in an interview. “I don't think this is on people's radar.”
