TLDR: Matt Garman, CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), strongly criticized the notion of replacing junior employees with AI, calling it ‘one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.’ He emphasized that entry-level staff are cost-effective, adaptable to AI tools, and crucial for building a long-term talent pipeline. His remarks come amidst a trend of slowed hiring for recent graduates in big tech, with some experts predicting AI-driven job displacement.
Matt Garman, the Chief Executive Officer of Amazon Web Services (AWS), has voiced strong opposition to the practice of replacing junior employees with artificial intelligence, labeling it as ‘one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.’ Speaking on the ‘Matthew Berman’ podcast, Garman underscored the vital role of entry-level staff, highlighting their affordability and their natural inclination to adopt and utilize new AI tools. He questioned the long-term viability of companies that neglect their junior talent pipeline, stating, ‘How’s that going to work when you go like 10 years in the future and you have no one that has built up or learned anything?’
Garman’s comments arrive at a time when major technology firms, including Meta and Microsoft, have reportedly reduced their hiring of recent university graduates. A report released earlier this year by SignalFire, a company specializing in job movement analysis, indicated a significant drop in new graduates comprising new hires at big tech companies, falling from 25% in 2023 to 7% last year. Asher Bantock, SignalFire’s Head of Research, attributed this decline primarily to AI’s growing capability to handle routine, entry-level tasks such as basic coding and research.
Further supporting the concerns about AI’s impact on employment, Goldman Sachs researchers noted a nearly 3% rise in unemployment among 20- to 30-year-olds seeking tech jobs since 2024, a rate more than four times higher than the overall unemployment rate. Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs’ Chief Economist, projected that AI could displace up to 7% of all U.S. employees within the next decade, contributing to an increase in the unemployment rate.
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Other prominent figures in the AI sector have also issued warnings regarding job displacement. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, predicted in May that AI could eliminate half of junior, white-collar positions within the next five years. Similarly, Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize laureate renowned for his foundational work in AI, forecasted in June that AI would eventually ‘replace everybody’ in white-collar professions. In contrast, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang offered a different perspective, stating that individuals who leverage AI will ultimately replace those who do not, emphasizing the importance of AI adoption for career longevity.
