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ZDNET's key takeaways
Job cuts suggest professional work is changing in the AI era.
Modern companies need fewer organizers and more builders.
Professionals should retrain, reskill, and rescope their roles.
What's been a hard 12 months for professionals just got tougher. Fears over the increased use of AI to complete white-collar roles have been compounded by news of layoffs. If you're a mid-level professional, it's tough not to feel anxious about the future of work.
In a memo to staff last week, Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said her company's decision to cut 14,000 corporate roles was aimed at "reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources."
Also: AI struggles to cite results properly. Can Perplexity and Getty's new partnership fix that?
The news from Amazon is the latest in a series of layoffs by big businesses. Experts believe one significant factor affecting the fast-changing job market is AI. Earlier this year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI could be responsible for eliminating half of all entry-level white-collar jobs -- while spiking unemployment to 10-20% -- in the next one to five years.
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