Redundancies and transition

Amazon CEO writes to employees: AI will reduce our workforce

The Seattle-based giant relies on artificial intelligence to increase efficiency and profits. And in the next few years the corporate workforce will be reduced: AI agents will take the place of thousands of employees

by Angelica Migliorisi

18 June 2025

3' min read

Key points

Cuts announced, more to come
Smart agents change everything
Who's the hit from?
Not all jobs will disappear, but all will change.
Work and AI: the challenge of the decade

3' min read

It is not a threat. It is a formal warning. Amazon, on the other side of its 1.5 million employees scattered around the world, has announced that it will cut staff in the coming years because artificial intelligence (AI) is faster, more efficient and cheaper. Andy Jassy, CEO of the Seattle-based giant, signed the statement that many feared and few dared to utter: AI is not just a support tool. It is a replacement factor. And Amazon plans to use it to do more with fewer people.

Those who work behind a desk, analyse data, compose emails, organise sales or assist customers are warned: a conversational agent will do some of those tasks. Or, perhaps, already does.

Cuts announced, more to come

In the internal communication sent to employees on 17 June, Jassy left no room for interpretation: 'In the next few years we expect a reduction in our corporate workforce, thanks to efficiency gains from the intensive use of artificial intelligence.

An announcement that came after more than 27,000 redundancies since 2022 in various departments, including devices, services and customer support. In 2025 alone, Amazon has already cut another 300 positions between January and May. And, apparently, it is not finished.

Intelligent agents change everything

The reason for this acceleration has a precise name: Generative AI agents. Intelligent systems, that is, that perform complex tasks autonomously, using language models such as GPT, Claude or Gemini to interact, plan, decide and act. They do not merely generate texts or responses, but take instructions, understand them and act accordingly.

According to Jassy, Amazon has more than a thousand AI systems already operational or in testing, used to create customised advertising content, optimise logistics, assist customers via chat and voice, write code, summarise data, generate predictive analytics, and support internal teams with repetitive tasks.

"Agents allow you to say what you want, in natural language, and they do the work for you. They will research, write, organise, report anomalies. And we are not talking about hundreds. We are talking about billions of intelligent agents, in every industry and every company,' the CEO wrote.

The employees' reaction

Internal reactions were not long in coming.The company Slack channels were filled with messages full of concern, uncertainty and anger. Some bitterly commented that 'there is nothing more motivating than a Tuesday when you find out your job will be replaced by AI'. They questioned the company's choice to use artificial intelligence as a tool to cut costs rather than to increase employees' operational possibilities.

Some point out that this dynamic is accompanied by recent cutbacks, fuelling fears that the efficiency agenda is taking priority over innovation. And there is no shortage of controversy over the fact that senior managers are unlikely to be affected by these downsizing as high levels of management remain intact or even grow.

Who's the hit from?

Jassy's statement breaks a taboo in the tech world. Hitherto, the tech giants have tried not to make it clear that AI entails cuts. They have always talked about 'efficiency', 'retraining' and 'automation as support'. But now the mask has fallen off. And it's not just Amazon: Shopify asks employees to justify why they don't use AI before asking for new hires; Klarna has reduced its workforce by 40 per cent due in part to the adoption of artificial intelligence; Microsoft has cut hundreds of software engineers by 2024; Meta and Google are reorganising entire teams, shifting human functions to increasingly advanced language models.

Not all jobs will disappear, but all will change

To be fair, Jassy is not only talking about redundancies, but also about transition. AI will replace some jobs, but create new ones: prompt designers, language model trainers, bias analysts, ethics supervisors, automation engineers.

The problem? Not everyone will be able to convert in time. And those who have fallen behind digitally are at great risk. That is why the CEO invited employees to 'become curious about AI', attend internal courses, participate in workshops, experiment with tools and take part in brainstormings on new solutions. But it is not only a question of individual training. It is also a social and political challenge.

Jobs and AI: the challenge of the decade

According to the OECD, 60% of workers in advanced countries have jobs that can potentially be replaced by artificial intelligence. For the International Monetary Fund, then, the risk is not only unemployment, but the increase in inequality: those who have digital skills will be more in demand and paid. Those who do not have them will be bypassed. And in the absence of active public policies, the risk is that the transition will turn into a social tsunami.