Amazon Boss Admits AI Will Mean More Job Losses For Staff

A major concern surrounding the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been confirmed by the boss of a leading tech giant.

The Guardian reported that CEO Andy Jassy in a memo has told white collar staff at Amazon that their jobs could be taken by artificial intelligence in the next few years.

It comes amid ongoing concerns about the impact of AI on the jobs market. In January 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had warned that nearly 40 percent of jobs worldwide could be affected by AI, which could result in replacing jobs and worsening inequalities.

Jobs risk

Then in March 2024 the left-of-centre thinktank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), had warned that almost 8 million UK jobs could be lost to AI in a “jobs apocalypse”.

But in June 2024 a study by digital services consultancy Nash Squared found that generative AI was not yet replacing jobs in the UK, but was being broadly deployed to support existing roles.

Meanwhile Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in April 2025 had defended the billions the company is spending on artificial intelligence, saying it was important to spend “aggressively” now to reap rewards in the future.

Jassy’s statements came after Amazon had said in February it planned to spend $100 billion (£76.5bn) on capital expenditures this year, with the “vast majority” going toward Amazon Web Services cloud AI capabilities.

Jassy memo

But now the Guardian has reported that Jassy has told employees that AI agents – tools that carry out tasks autonomously – and generative AI systems such as chatbots would require fewer employees in certain areas.

“As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” he reportedly said in a memo to staff. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.

“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,” Jassy was quoted by the Guardian as saying.

Amazon employs 1.5 million people worldwide, with about 350,000 working in corporate jobs such as software engineering and marketing.

Jassy reportedly said in the near future there would be billions of AI agents working across companies and in people’s daily lives.

“There will be billions of these agents, across every company and in every imaginable field. There will also be agents that routinely do things for you outside of work, from shopping to travel to daily chores and tasks. Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they’re coming, and coming fast,” he reportedly said.

Jassy ended the memo by urging employees to be “curious about AI” and to “educate yourself” in the technology and take training courses.

“Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company,” he said.

AI replacing jobs

It should be remembered that Amazon is not the only firm seeking to replace staff with AI.

BT had announced back in 2023 that it would cut 55,000 jobs by 2030, and that a fifth of the roles would be replaced by AI.

Then at the weekend, the Guardian noted that BT’s chief executive had said advances in AI could lead to deeper job cuts at the company.

Meanwhile Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, reportedly said AI could wipe out half of all entry-level office jobs.

Amazon meanwhile continues to engage in ongoing layoffs among its workforce, after axing more than 23,000 staff in 2023 alone.