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Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

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Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#61

Post by nerevarthelame »

daxfohl wrote: post #38

I don't really get it. If AI is a force multiplier that suddenly makes your workforce way more productive, wouldn't you actually want to increase the size of your workforce to reap the maximum benefit? There are only two reasons I can think not to. First, if AI can fully replace a human in a role. But it seems like we're a long way away from that. Second, if the added productivity leaves you with nothing to do. But w…

Good news, everyone! I invented a new lubrication that increases wind turbine energy production by 10%. So we obviously want to decommission 10% of our wind turbines.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#62

Post by [deleted] »

daxfohl wrote: post #38

I don't really get it. If AI is a force multiplier that suddenly makes your workforce way more productive, wouldn't you actually want to increase the size of your workforce to reap the maximum benefit? There are only two reasons I can think not to. First, if AI can fully replace a human in a role. But it seems like we're a long way away from that. Second, if the added productivity leaves you with nothing to do. But w…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#63

Post by another_twist »

CharlesW wrote: post #57
jppope wrote: post #26

I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI and more to do with the revenue outlook or the growth outlook. Basically, they are "narrative shopping" to save face with the stock market... and IMO it might work. Just a basic sniff test though - If AI enables developer productivity that would translate to more revenue, reduc…

> I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI… You can legitimately argue "far less to do with", but it's definitely not nothing. There are countless projects underway where AI will allow for 10% reductions with zero business impact in the short term, and 25-40% reductions (sometimes more) by 2030.

I am curious, where are these numbers from ?

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#64

Post by faizshah »

Anything you can do with 1 person these large companies will figure out how to do with 10+ people + a PM + a Director/VP sponsor + 3-6 months of red tape and review and a late game “re-alignment” (rewrite) of the features right before the launch date.

More money is spent at most of these companies coordinating work than actually doing work.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#65

Post by burnte »

jppope wrote: post #26

I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI and more to do with the revenue outlook or the growth outlook. Basically, they are "narrative shopping" to save face with the stock market... and IMO it might work. Just a basic sniff test though - If AI enables developer productivity that would translate to more revenue, reduc…

True, however the pitch itself is telling. They're not saying "we're expecting AI to boost the productivity of our employees by 20% with no increase in labor costs." They're saying "we're going to spend less on humans" because investors are more ok with spending money on machines than people. That's the problem, they're not looking at how AI enhances people, they're looking at how it can eliminate people.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#66

Post by gedy »

gedy wrote: post #42

I'm noticing a pattern that any one or company that talks about AI "agents" is full of snake oil they are trying to sell you.

Replying to myself, but maybe this is to tap into power-trip marketing to manager or business types e.g. "fleets of agents", "at your fingertips", etc.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#67

Post by another_twist »

jchw wrote: post #37
jppope wrote: post #26

I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI and more to do with the revenue outlook or the growth outlook. Basically, they are "narrative shopping" to save face with the stock market... and IMO it might work. Just a basic sniff test though - If AI enables developer productivity that would translate to more revenue, reduc…

Even though I can fathom a world where AI tools could somehow lead to reduced head count, I think this is the only reasonable interpretation right now. After all, tech companies have been beating the "downsizing due to AI" drum for a really long time now, and for almost the entire time it has been very blatantly obvious bullshit.

What amazes me is the vile shit directed towards software engineers. Remember that letter from the dickhead investor to Google demanding to know why engineers were paid 450k. Or just PMs beating the drum about how you don't need engineers ? My reaction to that was hey all the tools you love to throw into engineers faces were devtools. You know the dev part is important. Remember Bubble, their whole schtick was you dont need a technical cofounder and I have yet to see a unicorn Bubble app. Instead of talking about how we all can collaborate, people really are hating on engineers for nothing.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#68

Post by satyrun »

arnonejoe wrote: post #22
gruez wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suppose all companies follow the suite who is going to buy their crap? There's no way that paying for a bunch of employees that you don't need, just so you can have some customers, is going to make sense. Even if you're operating a company town, only a fraction of their income is going to be spent on your company's goods/services, so you'll never be able to recoup the wage that way.

I think what he is trying to say is if there is mass unemployment as a result of "all companies following suit", no one will be able to buy their products.

Blue collar workers won't have this problem for a very long time.

It seems obvious that many white collar workers today will have to do something involving physical labor at some point in the future.

I expect I will be facing this in my mid 50s. Really not ideal timing.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#69

Post by jppope »

CharlesW wrote: post #57
jppope wrote: post #26

I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI and more to do with the revenue outlook or the growth outlook. Basically, they are "narrative shopping" to save face with the stock market... and IMO it might work. Just a basic sniff test though - If AI enables developer productivity that would translate to more revenue, reduc…

> I think the fair way to read any CEO's comments about AI reducing their workforce at this point has nothing to do with the capabilities of AI… You can legitimately argue "far less to do with", but it's definitely not nothing. There are countless projects underway where AI will allow for 10% reductions with zero business impact in the short term, and 25-40% reductions (sometimes more) by 2030.

ok. so you can reduce your head count without impact great! Why would you get rid of people? Why would you not reassign those people into other productive or revenue generating activities?

The only logical explanation is that they don't have enough opportunities to utilize those people OR as I previously mentioned... their financials might look bad, and they are trying to make them look better so they don't take a hit in the markets.

Re: Amazon CEO says AI agents will soon reduce company's corporate workforce

#70

Post by LightBug1 »

swader999 wrote: post #51
daxfohl wrote: post #38

I don't really get it. If AI is a force multiplier that suddenly makes your workforce way more productive, wouldn't you actually want to increase the size of your workforce to reap the maximum benefit? There are only two reasons I can think not to. First, if AI can fully replace a human in a role. But it seems like we're a long way away from that. Second, if the added productivity leaves you with nothing to do. But w…

Yes! I'd imagine a lot of employees will just replace the SAAS that laid them off using AI to leap ahead or just jump ship to a competitor to do the same thing.

Thanks for reminding me to cancel my Prime. Logical comment!

This article/comment isn't really the prompt, just a reminder of that it seems like a shtty place to put my funds and I'll soon be using AI to replace it anyway!

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