Amazon Just Fired 14,000 People. Is AI To Blame?

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Did AI lay off 14,000 people at Amazon? Well, sort of. Anyway, news broke yesterday that Amazon was going to be laying off 30,000 corporate roles. The number actually came in at 14,000. That is still one of the company’s largest layoffs in years.

This has a lot to do first and foremost with reducing all of the pandemic hiring that took place because that was nuts. That was nuts. During the pandemic, type of hiring that took place and then the salaries that were being paid all across the tech world, the magazine was out of control and we pointed it out here on the program. I laughed.

I laughed. said, enjoy it while it lasts. Enjoy it while it lasts because these companies completely went nuts when it came to hiring and they’ve tried. They’ve tried, reducing their head count by return to office mandates. you know, for, you know, telling people, Hey, you know what, if you don’t, well, you know, we’ll, you can’t return. We’ll give you some sort of severance and then you can go away. It hasn’t been.

enough. Is AI a part of this? Yeah, it is. It’s not the only factor, but most certainly it’s playing a part in it. They are going to be able to streamline a lot of various different function they had before and chat boxes and a myriad of other things. These things have been in the works for some time. Again, we’re going to have to get used to it. Can I have to get used to it?

And I know there’s many people out there basically declaring this is going to be the end of the world as we know it. No, tech is not new. Tech destroys and it creates. That’s, again, you want to think about that. I’ve talked about the economist Joseph Schumpeter who talks about, calls it creative destruction.

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where certain jobs will be destroyed and other ones will be created. I never forget, you know, Obama during some speech he was giving, was misinformed, go figure, talked about how their ATM destroyed all of these teller jobs at the banks and they weren’t coming back. That’s right. Right. The teller jobs most certainly not coming back like they had in the past, but

the banks created other jobs and actually increased hiring after the fact. It’s just a matter of adopting new types of technology and figuring out how to use it. It’s how it is. It’s how it is, jobs shift, jobs change. I’ve talked about this in terms of the industry that I’m in. It’s changed drastically. Gone are the massive…

know, trading room floors for every single firm out there. I mean, they still exist when they’re trading for the actual firm, but managing people’s money and tickets and sales assistant, all these various different jobs that were a part of my early part of my career, they don’t exist anymore. They’re not necessary, but that doesn’t mean that something else is going to be created elsewhere. Again,

Amazon has corporate workforce of about 350,000 employees total workforce of about 1.5 million that includes warehouse and delivery workers.

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You’re gonna see a lot of automation in that area as well a lot So again, you know, we’re gonna see what’s happening for you’re gonna see this happening with other companies There’s going to be an adjustment period here in the united states, but this is what technology does And yeah, it can be scary to a lot of people again. I was actually interviewed talking about this today You need to be, you know self-aware

and understand the terrain. You need to make yourself and the job that you have, you want job security, okay? This is the best way I’m gonna put it to you. You want job security in life. You make sure if you’re working for somebody, working for a company, you got a boss, whatever it may be, you make sure, okay, that you are increasing the bottom line of that company. If you’re…

Increasing the bottom line of that company. They’re not going to get rid of you. They’re not. You’re valuable. This is why I talk about the importance of interpersonal skills. Being able to talk to others. Creating value for the company you work for. Being able to sell.

It’s a part of it. Okay, these are are realities that are out there. Okay, human resources. You’re probably going to go.

You’re probably gonna go just along with all you know, you did dei hires It went along with human resources and the people that they had to add so they look at you’re gone You’re gone Okay, it was great while it lasted But that’s that is just the nature of the beast Okay, let’s of course you want to get a job in government. You get a job in government. Yeah, you know you get Stay on forever doesn’t make an effort. don’t fire anybody but in the private sector

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Private sector, make yourself make yourself someone that works so that you can’t be replaced. You’re too good at what you do. You add too much value to the company that you work for. Watchdogonwallstreet.com