Amazon (AMZN) argues that AI will supercharge profits — even if workers are sidelined.
The divide is at the center of new research from Just Capital, shared exclusively with Yahoo Finance, showing that investors and workers are increasingly split over how AI’s productivity boom should play out within corporate America.
“The overwhelming results of the investor survey was, efficiency and reductions like that only gets you so far,” Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker told Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid.
In other words, AI-driven cost cuts might please shareholders now — but they won’t carry companies indefinitely.
“It has to be about growth,” Whittaker emphasized, suggesting that firms focusing only on headcount reductions could be missing bigger opportunities in long-term innovation, customer experience, and worker investment.
His comments come as the winners and losers in the AI economy come into sharper focus. Amazon is cutting 14,000 corporate jobs as it leans harder on automation and AI. Reuters previously reported Amazon may eliminate as many as 30,000 positions.
Amazon senior vice president of people experience and technology Beth Galetti attributed the cuts partly to AI reshaping how the company operates. She wrote that the company is “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 business.”
Amazon’s stock is up 4% in 2025, far trailing the S&P 500’s (^GSPC) 17% gain and the Nasdaq Composite’s (^IXIC) 23% advance.
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Meanwhile, education platform Chegg (CHGG) is eliminating 45% of its staff, citing the “new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google.” UPS (UPS) has also cut about 48,000 jobs this year as automation expands through its logistics network.
Whether AI is really benefiting shareholders or workers remains a growing point of tension.
According to Just Capital, 96% of investors believe AI will have a net positive impact on worker productivity. But among the public, that optimism drops sharply: Just 47% think AI will make workers more productive overall.
“We’re looking for areas where [investors and workers] agree and where they disagree,” Whittaker said. “One of the areas where they disagree … is how companies can distribute the proceeds of greater AI-based productivity.”
The report notes that 28% of investors prioritized returning capital to shareholders, adding that productivity gains — boosting margins, earnings, and stock prices — should flow back to investors.
