Superhero or Unemployed

Amazon plans, according to current reports (reuters.com, Jan 23, 2026), to lay off thousands of employees in the U.S. soon. The figure being discussed is around fourteen thousand.

Sure, that’s only a small fraction of Amazon’s one and a half million employees worldwide.

But those being laid off are not delivery drivers or warehouse workers. Turnover there would probably be relatively normal, depending on national and seasonal factors.

Those being laid off are, according to the report, “corporate workers.” In other words: employees within Amazon’s administration. Office workers. And of those, it’s about ten percent. A similar number was already laid off back in October 2025.

Altogether, reports say, thirty thousand positions in Amazon’s administration are to be cut. Just like that, with no replacement. It reminds me of that cynical German saying: “We don’t know how we could manage without you, but starting on the first of next month, we’ll give it a try.”

You read that one factor in the layoffs is the increasing use of “artificial intelligence.” The main reason, however, is supposedly “usual” restructuring.

It’s actually not that easy to say that—or whether—a person loses their job “because they were replaced by AI.”

So far, people are not simply being replaced 1:1 by robots. (But anyone who is relatively new to working life today should be prepared for that as a possibility.)

Artificial intelligence today does not replace workers directly; it multiplies the efficiency of individual, suitably qualified workers.

So the reality is not: workers X and Y are replaced by AI, only Z happens to stay.

Rather: worker Z becomes hyper-efficient through AI, which makes workers X and Y redundant.

Can this be shown directly in every individual case? No. But it’s also of little interest; it’s more a statistical matter. Use artificial intelligence competently (!) in a company, and before long you will need fewer people for the same work. The fact is that Amazon will continue to be just as successful—with tens of thousands fewer “corporate employees.”

Let’s assume that your job today largely consists of managing information on a screen. And let’s further assume that your employer actually operates in the market.

If both are true, then prepare yourself to soon belong to one of two groups.

A colleague will develop superpowers—and you will become redundant, which sooner or later will affect your employment. (Or your employer shuts itself off from this, and thus becomes redundant itself. The effect for you will be the same, just a bit later.)

Or you are the one who gets to work today on developing the corresponding superpowers.