About a month ago,AmazonCEO Andy Jassy once said "artificial intelligence will mean fewer jobs," sending shockwaves through the job market. But on Amazon's earnings call Thursday, he struck a more optimistic tone. Jassy reiterated his view that AI will be a transformative force that "will dramatically change the way we work" and highlighted the widespread impact it is already having. "It's changing the way Amazon does coding, finance, all kinds of things," he said.
Artificial intelligence "will make jobs more enjoyable for all our teammates," Jassy said, eliminating the need for them to do "mechanical" tasks that previously couldn't be automated. He added that companies have a choice in the AI revolution: They can embrace the changes happening and help shape the new era, "or you can wish it away and let it shape you." He said he has been working to show internally and externally that Amazon will rise to this moment.
While the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence have dominated tech headlines over the past two years, Jassy's comments detail how Amazon is quickly embedding advanced artificial intelligence into its internal workflows and customer-facing services. He highlighted the company's investments in generative AI agents that can assist or even perform complex coding tasks independently.
“Having AI write the code for us allows our teammates to start from a more advanced starting point,” Jassy explained.
This idea of combining human creativity with AI efficiency is also reshaping other important sectors. In research and finance, Jassy described artificial intelligence tools that can quickly synthesize large amounts of information or flag anomalies in financial data, freeing up skilled workers to do strategic work.
Jassy also highlighted the growing influence of artificial intelligence in Amazon's vast call center and customer service operations. He noted that services like AWS Connect - the company's cloud-based call center solution - now have deep integration of artificial intelligence, allowing for more natural customer interactions and automated problem resolution.
For months, Jassy has been highlighting the growing impact of artificial intelligence, recommending, for example, that employees take AI training while promising investors that AI will make them "very happy."
Amazon reported strong quarterly earnings earlier Thursday, but its shares fell about 7% in after-hours trading as investors worried about trade headwinds and Amazon's long-term spending plans. Regarding the impact of tariffs in the first half of the year, Jassy told analysts on a conference call, "We haven't seen a reduction in demand and we haven't seen a significant increase in prices."