Amazon CEO Jassy expects AI to reduce workforce, streamline operations
Amazon expects leading-edge artificial intelligence to create a more efficient and customer-friendly future for the company.
In a message to employees, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, discussed how the company sees generative AI, which can create recommendations based on analysis of volumes of data in near-real-time that were previously too big to evaluate, and agentic AI, which analyzes massive amounts of data in near-real-time and then automatically takes action based on the results, as transformative technologies.
"Today, in virtually every corner of the company, we’re using generative AI to make customers lives better and easier," Jassy said in the message. "What started as deep conviction that every customer experience would be reinvented using AI, and that altogether new experiences we’ve only dreamed of would become possible, is rapidly becoming reality."
Jassy cited current generative AI-based Amazon solutions such as its Alexa+ voice-enabled device and Rufus shopping assistant, as well as back-end generative AI tools such as enhanced features for advertisers, warehouse robots, and foundational models for its Amazon Web Services hosted cloud division.
"While we’ve made a lot of progress, we’re still at the relative beginning," said Jassy. "There are a few reasons we believe this and want to go even faster."
Following is a summary of how Jassy expects next-gen AI will change Amazon’s operations in terms of scope and speed and in terms of workforce:
Scope and speed
Jassy believes that billions of agentic AI agents will automate professional and personal tasks across companies and individuals. He expects these agents to allow Amazon to start almost everything it does from a more advanced starting point.
"We’ll be able to focus less on rote work and more on thinking strategically about how to improve customer experiences and invent new ones," Jassy said. "Agents will be teammates that we can call on at various stages of our work, and that will get wiser and more helpful with more experience. It’s going to rapidly accelerate our ability to make customers lives easier and better every day."
Workforce
Jassy said as Amazon rolls out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way the company performs its work.
"We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," said Jassy. "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 as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company."
Amazon has already been actively reducing staffing across various parts of the organization since 2023. The company laid off roughly 200 employees from its North America stores group, which includes the Fashion and Fitness offering, in January 2025.
Amazon also engaged in a substantial number of layoffs between spring 2023 and spring 2024. These included hundreds of positions across several divisions of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit in April 2024, as well as reportedly reducing headcount by less than 5% at the unit responsible for its Buy with Prime service in January 2024.
That same month, the company eliminated several hundred roles across the Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios organization, and also laid off “just over 500 people” across its Twitch gaming streaming platform.
Earlier layoffs include November 2023 reductions in Amazon’s Alexa workforce, as well as an April 2023 decision to eliminate positions in AWS.
And in a March 2023 memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company intended to eliminate about 9,000 workers.
[READ MORE: Amazon to enact new round of 9,000 job cuts]
"There's so much more to come with generative AI," said Jassy. "I'm energized by our progress, excited about our plans ahead, and looking forward to partnering with you all as we change what’s possible for our customers, partners, and how we work."
