I think that this is truly an important topic at this point. When you spend much time as most people, consuming short and scattered threads of information on events, you tend more often than not, to be misinformed, or at least, misunderstand a lot.
A lot have been said about companies downsizing this year and much of social platforms comments have been about how these roles are being filled by AI.
At the same time, the strongly opposing side of this arguments claim that these layoffs are driven by poor economic activities and that AI is just a cover-up.
I was sure what I was going to say that I think that these layoffs may be about before I began writing, so imagine my surprise that a quick Google search on some recent layoffs report reveals information that supports what I was going to highlight.
Amazon said Tuesday that it will lay off about 14,000 corporate employees, marking the latest cuts in the company’s multiyear effort to rein in costs.
In a blog post, the company wrote that the layoffs are being carried out to help make the company leaner and less bureaucratic, while it looks to invest in “our biggest bets” including generative artificial intelligence.
This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, wrote. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and businesses.
CNBC report | Tue, Oct 28 2025
How can anyone read this and still say that companies are laying off with an excuse of AI-automations or roles being filled with them?
Various news platforms are obviously part of the problem as suggesting immediate AI replacements will probably generate clicks for them.
But this isn't what is happening.
Companies are mostly, probably, going to downsize not to immediately fill up roles with AI, rather, they are going to do so to redirect money towards investing in AI.
It's just a simple thing to miss because the headlines can make them seem like something it's not.
Saying "Amazon lays off 14,000 to invest in AI" can somehow sound like said AI is immediately replacing these employees, when the truth is that it's about capital redirection to what the company sees a future with.
Developing and advancing AI is expensive right now. I'm sure that if anyone cared to do the math, they'd realize that these lay offs would put billions into these companies hands to invest in AI.
The internet claims that $133,062 is the average salary of a corporate employee at Amazon, that would mean that Amazon can potentially access over $1.8 billion for AI investments as a direct benefit of this layoffs.
AI isn't yet capable of many things, but companies understand it's capital needs and will do what it takes to get the technology to the stage where it becomes profitable or at least position themselves to be profitable when it gets there.
AI is likely not taking that much jobs right now, it's just the reason for some losses due to capital needs.
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