Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has shared a letter with employees, outlining his thoughts on generative AI, including his prediction that it will lead to “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”

Amazon is one of the largest employers in the US. Like many companies, Amazon is betting heavily on AI, rolling it out in everything from AWS to Alexa devices. In his latest email to employees, however, Jassy makes clear that he sees AI replacing many jobs that are currently being handled by employees.

Today, we have over 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but at our scale, that’s a small fraction of what we will ultimately build. We’re going to lean in further in the coming months. We’re going to make it much easier to build agents, and then build (or partner) on several new agents across all of our business units and G&A areas.

As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. 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 as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.

Interestingly, Jassy recommends that employees familiarize themselves with generative AI, educate themselves, and learn to use in the context of their work.

As we go through this transformation together, be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can, participate in your team’s brainstorms to figure out how to invent for our customers more quickly and expansively, and how to get more done with scrappier teams.

Jassy also says the company already has more than 1,000AI services and applications, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to what the company will eventually deploy.

Today, we have over 1,000 Generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but at our scale, that’s a small fraction of what we will ultimately build. We’re going to lean in further in the coming months. We’re going to make it much easier to build agents, and then build (or partner) on several new agents across all of our business units and G&A areas.

Jassy’s revelations are an interesting take on Gen-AI, opening acknowledging that it will lead to some jobs being phased out. At the same time, his encouragement to employees to learn how to use AI is in line with what industry experts have maintained for some time: AI will not replace traditional employees, but people using AI will.