29/10/2025
It starts at the top. The tech giants.
Amazon is cutting up to 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 percent of its office workforce as it leans into generative AI and automation to drive productivity.
Why does this matter beyond Amazon? Because this is the pattern.
The companies with the most advanced AI infrastructure are always the first to automate deeply.
The first to ask can this role be replaced by code or an agent
The first to feel the ripple.
When Big Tech automates office work functions disrupting roles once considered safe it sends a clear signal. No role is immune.
Here’s how the ripple spreads
• Tier 1 Big Tech leads automation and cuts office roles
• Tier 2 Tech savvy firms follow benchmarking efficiency gains
• Tier 3 Broader industries tax heavy service finance legal marketing begin to shift
• Tier 4 Eventually all office based work feels the effect especially repetitive or structured workflows
As an automation specialist, I’m already seeing it.
I can’t think of many office roles today that can’t be automated except those requiring genuine human touch like relationship driven sales, etc.
The next frontier is the white collar work many once believed automation could never reach.
So the question isn’t if your role might be automated it’s when and under what conditions.
And for professionals the new skill isn’t just using AI it’s working alongside it knowing which workflows to automate which to optimise and which to reinvent.
What office work do you believe cannot be automated and why?