AWS Chief Rejects Notion of AI-Driven Job Wipeout

Some tech executives warn that artificial intelligence (AI) will usher in mass waves of layoffs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Matt Garman is not one of them.

“Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, but I don’t think that’s true,” Garman told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Monday (May 18) when asked about predictions that AI would cause unemployment on the scale of the Great Depression.

“I think it’s the potential to create massive value, and I think there’s going to be new and different types of jobs,” Garman said.

He acknowledged that some jobs would be disrupted, using the example of a developer whose chief focus was on writing a good line of Java code. That skill, Garman said, will probably be less valuable.

“But we are going to need tons and tons of software developers who know how to build systems, who know how to think about solving problems for customers,” he said.

He added that he understands the nervousness, but “we view it as fewer people to accomplish the same task, but you can do more things.”

Garman told the WSJ that workers “will need to adjust, learn new skills and embrace” AI.

His comments come amid a series of job cuts related to AI at a variety of tech companies. But while these layoffs tend to lead to fears of a larger employment crisis, current labor research presents a more complex picture, PYMNTS wrote earlier this year.

At the time, the World Economic Forum had just argued that while automation and AI will displace certain tasks, they will also lead to new categories of work, especially in data, AI oversight, cybersecurity and human-centric services.

The report noted that it was a season of transition, not permanent contraction. A major portion of workers’ skills are expected to evolve in the next five years, which will mean retraining and adaptation.

“The pressure is real, but it is directional. Roles centered on routine information processing are most exposed,” PYMNTS wrote. “Roles combining domain expertise, judgment and technological fluency are expanding.”

This pattern resembles earlier computing cycles. The advent of personal computers lessened demand for some clerical roles but drove growth in IT services, software development and digital marketing. The internet reconfigured retail and media but also led to entire new sectors in eCommerce and cloud infrastructure.

“AI appears to be accelerating that restructuring, particularly in industries like FinTech, where large portions of work involve data, transactions and risk analysis,” PYMNTS wrote. “Fraud detection, customer support triage and onboarding reviews are increasingly augmented by machine learning systems. As these systems improve, organizations adjust their staffing models.”