Instead, Garman said AI will reshape work rather than eliminate it outright. While some jobs may not exist in the future, new jobs will emerge, he argued, because economies simply depend on workers earning money and spending it.
“I do think that half of white-collar jobs may change, but wipe out and change are different,” Garman added.
“[When] you talk about entry-level jobs, number one, they’re your cheapest employees,” Garman said. “They haven’t learned bad habits, you can teach them the culture, they’re willing to learn the new tools, they’re some of the very best employees you can possibly have.”
Beyond cost, he said, younger workers bring something many established organizations struggle to maintain: fresh perspectives.
“They come in with an energy and excitement, a new view on things,” Garman said. “If you just have the exact same people that you’ve had for the last 15 years, you don’t get that energy and excitement and new ideas.”
Rather than focusing solely on a candidate’s existing technical skills, Garman said the Seattle-based company increasingly values adaptability, curiosity, and the ability to learn quickly as AI transforms how work gets done.
“One of the things we start to look for in employees is not the skill set you have, but do you have the ability to learn?” Garman said. “Do you have the willingness to dive in and learn new things and the agility to reason about problems?”
Workers who embrace that mindset, he said, will thrive—as will the companies that choose to embrace that younger talent.
“When you have employees that have that mentality—that I want to learn, I want to lean in and do new things—there’s a crazy amount of opportunity in front of us,” Garman said. “To run really fast, build new businesses, deliver value to our customers, [and] reduce costs.”
In a statement to Fortune, Amazon said it “remains committed to our internship program as an important pathway to finding the next generation of leaders and builders.”
As entry-level jobs continue to reshape, Garman isn’t the only executive who’s vocally backing up Gen Z talent.
“If we don’t continue to invest in entry-level hires, what happens in 3–5 years?” LaMoreaux added. “There’s no pipeline; the well simply dries up.”
“I’m delighted to be wrong about this,” Altman said earlier this year. “I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened.”
