Amazon To Cut 1,000 Jobs Due To AI. Now What?
Giant robot flicking tiny man. Ai technologies and unemployment problem concept. Vector ... More illustration.
Earlier this week, Amazon announced it would cut 1,000 jobs due to AI. Is anyone surprised?
The monster created by Big Tech has begun rising up to consume its creator. Well, perhaps not totally consume, but the damage done could likely be (a) measurable, (b) a harbinger of things to come at Amazon, and (c) a phenomenon we will see far and wide, not just at Amazon.
It's inescapable for a few reasons. First, according to data from layoffs.fyi, which monitors tech worker layoffs, already this year 141 companies have laid off 62,832 employees. In 2024, it was 152,922 employees from 551 companies and in 2023, it was 264,220 employees from 1,193 companies.
Layoffs, we see, are inevitable – especially in tech. At the onset of new technologies or the introduction of new products, hiring takes place with kid-in-a-candy-store concern for consequences. A year later, things look quite different – and that kid is now an obese diabetic.
Now, however, we see a direct cause and effect, unmistakenly traceable to AI, because AI has advanced so quickly that it is now capable of doing many of those lower, entry-level jobs we've long feared it could do. I am reminded of the classic line from the 1960s comic strip Pogo: 'We have met the enemy and it is us.'
Make no mistake, though, this is not limited to tech jobs. In May, I posted a column here, 'How AI Affects The Socioeconomic Order Of The Workplace' (5/27) and here's what we saw:
Beginner programmers and coders, data analysts, junior paralegals, retail sales associates, content writers, copy editors, graphic artists, and grant writers are among the many who will deal with this reality. There's more, but space and time have limits here.
This phenomenon of jobs being eaten by AI will undoubtedly be seen at all tech companies, as they are the creators of this to begin with. But it will spread elsewhere. Picture lava streaming down an erupting volcano.
But there's a big upside to this. The World Economic Forum predicts that AI will create 78 million jobs, even after job losses are factored in. So, working the math and going with aggregated and widely-accepted estimations that for every job killed by AI three or four will be created, we come to this: 78 million is the WEF's net number, bringing us to 100 million or more, gross.
Thise jobs will just not be the vulnerable entry-level jobs we've been discussing here. It's complicated, no?
If I were running a large company, I'd ask for a meeting. In the same room, I'd have the president of the local university or community college, my senator or congressperson, and me. I'd have one item on the agenda: those AI skills we've been teaching for our graduates to find their first jobs need to be relegated to high school and forever be seen as obsolete. AI will forever do them. Next, define the next level of AI jobs and teach them as the new entry level, while teaching other skills – communication, critical thinking, problem solving, etc. – that our new employees would have been developing on he way up.
We are past throwing our hands in the air. This is no longer something new or mysterious. 'Success delayed is success denied,' said Ben Franklin. We just simply must take the first step.
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