"We happen to believe that virtually every customer experience will be reinvented using AI.” - Andy Jassy, at Amazon's annual shareholder meeting, May 21, 2025.
At the meeting, Jassy "again made the case for the company’s extraordinary – and fast-growing – investments into artificial intelligence infrastructure and products, with capital expenditures primarily focused on this space to grow to around $100 billion in 2025, up from $78 billion last year," according to Fortune. (Note that that is $100 billion - with a "b" - being spent by Amazon this year on AI.)
In a bit of understatement, Jassy called today’s generative AI landscape a “very unusual opportunity,” defending the company’s deep investments in AI amid investor concerns. Responding to a shareholder question referencing a Wells Fargo report suggesting a slowdown, Jassy firmly denied any pullback.
He outlined how Amazon is using generative AI in two major ways: boosting internal efficiency and creating new customer experiences.
On the operations side, Jassy pointed to a revamped customer service chatbot, AI tools for sellers to speed up product listings, and improved demand forecasting. On the consumer front, he highlighted Amazon’s Rufus shopping assistant, the new Alexa Plus (now in limited release), AI-generated review summaries, and new AWS offerings.
“We happen to believe that virtually every customer experience will be reinvented using AI,” Jassy said, adding that long-term investors will be “very happy” with the transformation.
His remarks reflect a broader trend among Big Tech leaders who are having to not only justifying record AI spending, but who are using earnings calls to "appease, educate or excite" investors, boost confidence in the investment in artificial intelligence - and not incidentally, help attract top AI talent.
