Amazon CEO Now Says AI Is Not Answerable for Latest Layoffs

Amazon simply posted its third-quarter earnings and it seems it was an exceptional quarter for the e-commerce large, regardless of latest layoffs.

The corporate large raked in $180.2 billion in gross sales within the three months ending Sept. 30, up 13% from the identical interval final 12 months. Its cloud enterprise, AWS, reported its largest year-over-year development since 2022, climbing 20% to $33 billion. The corporate’s inventory even popped 13% in after-hours buying and selling following the report.

So why, with the corporate performing so effectively, did Amazon simply slash 14,000 corporate jobs and hinted that extra cuts may very well be on the way in which?

Happily for us, CEO Andy Jassy was requested to touch upon the layoffs through the firm’s earnings name Thursday night. Nevertheless, he was fast to downplay any connection to AI.

“What I’d let you know is, you recognize, the announcement that we made a number of days in the past was not likely financially pushed, and it’s not even actually AI pushed, not proper now a minimum of,” Jassy instructed buyers. “It’s tradition.”

He went on to attempt to make the case that the corporate’s fast development during the last a number of years added extra folks, layers, and complexity to its operations. This fast development, in flip, slowed decision-making and weakened possession for employees on the frontlines.

Jassy stated Amazon is now dedicated to working just like the world’s largest startup to be able to transfer extra rapidly throughout what he referred to as the key “know-how transformation taking place proper now.”

The memo despatched to laid-off staff earlier this week hit a number of the identical factors Jassy made. Nevertheless it additionally straight named the large tech shift, AI, that he had been hinting at, at the same time as he claimed it wasn’t driving this spherical of layoffs.

“This era of AI is probably the most transformative know-how we’ve seen for the reason that Web, and it’s enabling corporations to innovate a lot sooner than ever earlier than (in current market segments and altogether new ones). We’re satisfied that we should be organized extra leanly, with fewer layers and extra possession, to maneuver as rapidly as doable for our prospects and enterprise,” wrote Beth Galetti, senior vp of individuals expertise and know-how at Amazon, within the memo.

Nonetheless, these job cuts additionally come as Amazon, and the remainder of Silicon Valley, is seemingly betting all of it on AI.

Jassy stated on Thursday that the corporate’s AI and cloud infrastructure added greater than 3.8 gigawatts of energy capability up to now 12 months and is predicted so as to add one other gigawatt this fourth quarter.

And future cuts will not be restricted to company employees. The New York Instances reported final week that Amazon’s automation workforce expects that by 2027, the corporate might avoid hiring more than 160,000 U.S. workers it would normally need. Total, Amazon’s robotics workforce has an final aim to automate 75 p.c of the corporate’s operations, in response to inner paperwork obtained by The New York Instances.