Can’t keep up? AI will eliminate jobs faster than workers can adapt, Amazon CEO warns

The Silicon Valley mantra echoes from every conference stage: “You won’t lose your job to AI, but to someone who learns to use AI.” While this reassuring narrative helps executives sleep soundly as HR departments scramble to deploy AI literacy programs, it fundamentally misses the seismic shift occurring across industries today.

The real disruption isn’t about individual workers becoming AI-proficient. Instead, entire job categories face obsolescence as artificial intelligence demonstrates exponentially improving capabilities in core business functions that once required human expertise.

The exponential reality

Today represents the least capable AI will ever be. Current models from major providers have begun surpassing average human cognitive benchmarks in standardized testing. Most people score between 85 and 115 on IQ assessments, with roughly 98% falling below 130. Recent versions of OpenAI‘s o3, Anthropic‘s Claude, and Google‘s Gemini now consistently score well above these thresholds in reasoning tasks.

However, raw intelligence scores only tell part of the story. AI capability improvements follow an exponential trajectory, roughly doubling every six to twelve months across key performance metrics. Consider this conservative projection of AI development over the next five years:

• 2025: Current systems handle complex analysis, writing, coding, and creative tasks with increasing sophistication
• 2026: AI capabilities surpass human performance in most cognitive benchmarks
• 2028: Systems operate at levels that challenge our ability to meaningfully measure or comprehend their capabilities
• 2030: AI fundamentally reshapes how we approach problem-solving and value creation

This exponential growth pattern proves difficult for humans to grasp intuitively. When AI can already produce superior marketing copy compared to many professionals, analyze datasets faster than human analysts, and generate code more efficiently than experienced developers, imagine the implications when these capabilities multiply by orders of magnitude.

The job container is breaking

For decades, organizations have packaged human effort into structured roles—discrete positions with defined responsibilities, reporting relationships, and compensation frameworks. This industrial-age approach worked when business processes were predictable, hierarchical, and required sustained human attention across consistent workflows.

Artificial intelligence is dismantling this model systematically. When AI systems can draft legal briefs in seconds, execute comprehensive marketing campaigns instantly, and process financial data that would require months of human analysis, traditional job boundaries become arbitrary limitations rather than logical organizational structures.

Recent developments illustrate this transformation vividly. HeyGen, an AI-powered video creation platform, recently launched its Video Agent—the first prompt-native creative engine that transforms single concepts into complete, publish-ready video content. Whether producing TikTok advertisements, YouTube hooks, product explainers, or user-generated content clips, the system creates professional videos within seconds.

While this technology offers compelling value for marketers across organizations of all sizes, it simultaneously threatens creative agencies and video production companies that previously provided these services. This represents the emergence of agentic content creation, where intelligent systems don’t merely assist with editing but autonomously manage end-to-end creative processes.

Corporate signals point toward workforce reduction

Companies positioned for long-term success won’t focus on training existing employees to use AI tools more effectively. Instead, they’ll fundamentally reimagine how work gets accomplished within their operations.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy provided a stark example in his June 17th memo titled “Some thoughts on Generative AI.” While highlighting AI’s remarkable applications across Amazon’s diverse business units, Jassy delivered this sobering assessment:

“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”

This direct acknowledgment that AI will eliminate positions should concern anyone performing repetitive or process-driven work. Amazon joins other technology companies like Duolingo, Klarna, and Shopify in signaling an “AI-first” operational philosophy.

Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke has instructed teams to demonstrate why AI cannot fulfill specific roles before requesting approval to hire human employees. This approach positions artificial intelligence as the default solution for many business functions, with human workers serving as exceptions rather than the standard approach.

While this AI-first methodology currently concentrates within technology companies, it won’t remain confined to that sector indefinitely.

The rise of liquid labor

Progressive organizations are moving beyond traditional job structures toward what can be termed “Liquid Labor”—fluid combinations of human creativity, AI capabilities, and automated processes that adapt in real-time to evolving business requirements.

Netflix exemplifies this approach. Rather than maintaining conventional “TV Programming Executive” positions, the streaming giant employs data scientists, content strategists, and algorithm specialists working in dynamic teams that continuously reconfigure based on viewer behavior patterns and market opportunities.

This fundamental shift challenges established organizational principles across multiple dimensions:

• Compensation structures: How should organizations pay employees when roles remain fluid and value creation emerges from collaborative human-AI partnerships?
• Performance evaluation: What metrics effectively measure success when outcomes result from integrated human-AI collaboration rather than individual contributions?
• Management hierarchies: How do traditional reporting structures function when AI systems coordinate most operational activities?

Strategic survival guide

Learning to use AI tools represents merely the baseline requirement for professional relevance. While experimenting with multiple models—from ChatGPT to Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, and Grok—helps identify each system’s strengths and limitations, this technical familiarity alone won’t ensure career security.

Here’s a comprehensive approach to positioning yourself for the AI-transformed workplace:

1. Develop irreplaceably human capabilities

Focus intensively on skills that artificial intelligence cannot easily replicate, at least in the near term:

• Complex emotional intelligence and genuine empathy in high-stakes interpersonal situations
• Creative problem-solving that draws connections across seemingly unrelated domains
• Ethical judgment and moral reasoning in ambiguous circumstances
• Building deep, trust-based relationships that require sustained human interaction
• Physical presence and embodied skills that require real-world manipulation and presence

2. Master meta-skills for adaptability

Cultivate higher-order thinking abilities that enable faster adaptation than AI optimization cycles:

• Systems thinking: Develop expertise in understanding how complex, interconnected systems influence each other across organizational and industry boundaries
• Learning agility: Build capacity to acquire new competencies before they become commoditized through AI automation
• Cultural navigation: Specialize in operating effectively across diverse human contexts where cultural nuance and relationship dynamics remain crucial
• Adaptability: Maintain ability to pivot faster than AI systems can optimize processes to replace human involvement

3. Position yourself at the human-AI interface

Become the critical bridge connecting AI capabilities with human needs and organizational objectives:

• Develop expertise in translating between AI system outputs and human decision-making requirements
• Specialize in AI oversight, ethics, and governance frameworks that organizations increasingly require
• Focus on high-stakes decisions where human accountability and judgment remain legally or ethically mandatory
• Build knowledge in regulatory areas where human involvement is explicitly required by law or industry standards

4. Create your own professional category

Forge a unique professional identity that transcends traditional job classifications:

• Combine skill sets in ways that create novel value propositions for employers or clients
• Build personal brands and reputations that extend beyond specific job titles or organizational affiliations
• Develop deep expertise at the intersection of multiple domains where few others operate effectively
• Focus relentlessly on measurable outcomes and results rather than task completion or time investment

5. Build financial resilience immediately

Urgently diversify income sources and develop wealth-generating assets while maintaining current earning power:

• Operate under the assumption that your current position has a three-to-five-year expiration timeline
• Develop multiple revenue streams that don’t depend solely on traditional employment relationships
• Invest in appreciating assets and equity positions rather than focusing exclusively on skill development
• Create scalable value that generates returns beyond hourly labor or salary arrangements

6. Cultivate strategic relationships

Build and maintain a robust network of value-creating professional relationships, as your unique human connections become increasingly defensible against AI replacement:

• Develop relationships that transcend current organizational boundaries and industry sectors
• Consistently create value for others before requiring assistance or reciprocal support
• Position yourself as a connector and facilitator who helps others achieve their objectives
• Remember that AI systems cannot replicate or replace your specific network of human relationships and the trust you’ve built within those connections

The urgency factor

Most professionals assume they have years to adapt to AI-driven workplace changes. This assumption proves dangerously incorrect. By the time artificial intelligence visibly threatens specific roles, repositioning becomes exponentially more difficult.

The exponential improvement curve typically unfolds as follows:

• Years 1-2: “AI serves as a helpful tool that enhances my productivity”
• Year 3: “AI handles approximately half my responsibilities, but human oversight remains essential”
• Year 4: “My role has been fundamentally restructured around AI collaboration”
• Year 5: “Traditional versions of my position no longer exist”

The opportunity window for strategic career repositioning exists now, while you maintain leverage, stable income, and multiple options for professional development.

Closing thoughts

The transformation from traditional jobs to liquid labor arrangements is already underway across industries. The choice facing professionals isn’t between learning AI tools or losing employment opportunities. Instead, it’s between fundamentally reimagining your career trajectory or watching your current professional identity become obsolete.

Those who act decisively now—building uniquely human capabilities, creating novel value propositions, and positioning themselves at the human-AI interface—won’t merely survive this transition. They’ll discover opportunities for professional growth and impact that don’t exist within today’s traditional employment structures.

Conversely, those who delay action, believing that significant disruption remains years in the future, will discover that no amount of prompt engineering expertise can compete with exponentially improving AI systems that operate continuously, never require sick leave, and improve their capabilities while you sleep.

The question isn’t whether this transformation will affect your career, but whether you’ll adapt quickly enough to benefit from the opportunities it creates. The time for strategic action is now.