Amazon's AI push raises employee climate, layoff concerns

Alex Halverson, The Seattle Times on Jan 29, 2026

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As Amazon culls its workforce, the company is pouring billions of dollars into its artificial intelligence infrastructure, leaving some employees wondering whether the trade-off is worth it.

The company will report financial results for 2025 next week and has previously projected it would spend about $125 billion in capital expenditures for the year. That investment is drawing backlash from employees, including those involved in the worker advocacy group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced it would lay off 16,000 employees as it continues to streamline its corporate ranks. The worker-led climate advocacy group soon issued a statement stating employees say 'Earth's Best Employer' is becoming a career dead-end as the company lays off thousands and invests in data centers."

Quoting anonymous workers, the group said there's growing concern among employees that the company's AI push will conflict with Amazon's climate goals.

In an open letter signed by more than 1,000 Amazon workers and over 4,000 people from tech companies like Microsoft, Meta and Google, workers are calling for more guardrails around AI and input from employees over how the technology is handled internally.

As Amazon integrates AI into its products for everyday consumers and commercial clients who use its cloud computing platform, the company is also encouraging AI use internally.

AI has been criticized for its high energy usage, a problem exacerbated with each user. Employees at Amazon say the AI tools they're given have been useful for repetitive tasks, but as the technology is driving real-world productivity, employees say the actual use of it could be more efficient.

As adoption of the tech continues, Amazon and other companies are ramping up data center expansion. In a sustainability report from last year, Amazon acknowledged that the AI push is creating a challenge from rising energy demand.

The company maintains that the technology is so transformative that it can tackle those challenges. Amazon points to the ways it's embedded AI into its retail business to improve the efficiency of its logistics network while maintaining fast delivery.

Amazon says it's also developing "breakthrough data-center innovations" in cooling technology to improve energy efficiency.

But Amazon's emissions goal took a step backward in 2024. The company, which aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, reported an increase in emissions from 2023 to 2024. In 2024, Amazon's total emissions were more than 17 million metric tons higher than in 2019.

"The AI race is widening this gap, the open letter from Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said.

As use of AI increases inside the company, employees say the work they're doing is essentially training those AI models and tools for more widespread use. Tech's broader pitch to use AI to tackle challenges like climate change is appealing to some, but the pressure to use it for mundane tasks throughout the day is wearing down the morale for those concerned about energy usage.