AI Academy
Posts
🤖 AI Gets the Blame as Amazon Cuts 14,000 Jobs

🤖 AI Gets the Blame as Amazon Cuts 14,000 Jobs

October 30, 2025

Hello AI Enthusiast,

Amazon just announced 14,000 layoffs in the name of AI, but the timing feels convenient when you consider they're also dealing with economic pressures. Meanwhile, AI companies are making their big enterprise play: Anthropic launched an Excel add-in specifically for finance teams, while OpenAI introduced a feature that connects ChatGPT to all your work apps at once. This week shows AI's impact on corporate life from every angle.

The Big Picture 🔊

Amazon Cuts 14,000 Jobs for AI Push

Amazon is laying off 14,000 corporate employees as CEO Andy Jassy pushes the company to operate more leanly in the AI era. The cuts represent about 4% of Amazon's corporate workforce. Jassy stated that AI will enable faster innovation but will also reduce the need for human workers in certain roles, while creating demand for new types of jobs.

Helin YontarCPO and Polyglot

Amazon's layoffs aren't primarily about AI replacement. It's also typical corporate restructuring during economic downturns. But it's also true that basic skills aren't enough anymore.

Companies are cutting bureaucratic layers while demanding employees who can work with AI. Upskilling sounds straightforward, but it's not always as easy as it seems.

As companies rush to cut costs with AI, many are discovering they needed a strategy first. Our Corporate AI Training helps you figure out where AI actually adds value. Sometimes your entire team needs basic AI adoption. Other times, you want to train AI champions who can build agents for the whole company. We'll help you avoid expensive trial-and-error.

Claude Launches Excel Add-in for Finance

Anthropic has released Claude for Excel in beta, allowing users to work with Claude directly in Microsoft Excel through a sidebar. Claude can read, analyze, modify, and create spreadsheets. The company also added new connectors for real-time market data and introduced six new Agent Skills for finance tasks like building discounted cash flow models and initiating coverage reports.

Biljana PrlichkovaPRM and Outdoor Enthusiast

Anthropic is carving out a clear niche in finance. The focus on data privacy is smart. Most financial companies we talk to struggle with AI adoption because they're worried about security first, capabilities second.

Claude's approach of building partnerships with financial data providers shows they understand this industry actually needs different tools than what consumer AI offers.

OpenAI Launches Company Knowledge for Enterprise ChatGPT

OpenAI has released Company Knowledge for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise, and Edu users. The feature connects workplace apps like Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub, allowing ChatGPT to search across sources and provide cited answers. OpenAI says it helps create reports and strategic plans using company data and respecting existing permissions.

Gioele MottarliniCOO and Image Addict

This sounds very useful but many corporates will hesitate before connecting all their tools to an external AI. It's similar to trusting Google or Microsoft with your data, but perception matters.

Smaller teams might jump in immediately, while larger organizations will likely wait to see how early adopters handle it.

Bits and Bobs 🗞️

OpenAI has restructured into a for-profit corporation controlled by a non-profit foundation to enable more flexible funding and growth.
xAI's Grokipedia offers an AI-generated encyclopedia that relies heavily on Wikipedia content and lacks user editing features.
Microsoft's new Copilot Mode in Edge transforms the browser into an AI assistant that can understand your tabs, summarize information, and perform tasks like booking hotels.
Microsoft's renewed $135 billion investment in OpenAI reinforces their exclusive partnership to responsibly advance AI and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) development.
OpenAI's latest GPT-5 update significantly improves ChatGPT's responses to serious mental health issues and reduces unsafe replies by up to 80% using refined safety taxonomies and expert clinician feedback.
Anthropic plans to boost AI research by expanding its use of up to one million Google TPUs, enhancing compute power for developing and deploying its Claude AI models.
YouTube’s Likeness detection uses AI to identify videos containing your face to help protect your identity and request removal if needed.
Google AI Studio’s new vibe coding feature uses Gemini models to let users build multi-modal AI-powered apps easily by describing their ideas in natural language.

From Our Founder’s Channels 🤳

In his latest TikTok, Gianluca Mauro compares the early browser wars to today’s AI race - explaining how OpenAI is launching a browser to embed ChatGPT everywhere, control distribution, and secure its own destiny, in a move similar to how Google launched Chrome to outmaneuver Microsoft.

@gianluca.mauro
Tech Drama: Why OpenAI launched a browser #Ai #learnontiktok #business #chatgpt

LOLgorithms 😂

Finally, you can stop bothering your colleague about VLOOKUP.

That's a wrap on our newsletter! Before you go, here’s a quick recap of our offerings:

AI Academy Membership: Get 12 months of access to all our cohort-based programs, live webinars, on-demand courses, and tutorials.
AI Agent Bootcamp: Accelerate processes and solve business problems by mastering prompts and building AI Agents, without coding.
Practical Introduction to ChatGPT: A free course on using ChatGPT confidently, understanding its workings, and exploring its potential.
Customized Corporate Training: Equip your team with the skills they need to unlock the potential of AI in your business.

Catch you next week! 👋