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- The Dawn of AI - Investments & Layoffs
The Dawn of AI - Investments & Layoffs
Bleak or Bright for America's Student Population?
Tabarak Rehman
November 01, 2025
As of Tuesday, 28 October, retail giant Amazon has announced that it will slash its corporate workforce by 4%, announcing 14,000 corporate layoffs - with impacted employees to be notified by early next week. In many ways, this is a realization of the company’s building vision as they embrace the dawn of generative AI
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company”
Just a few days earlier, Amazon launched its AI PhD Fellowship Program - an initiative that will see the company hand out $68 million over the course of two years. The program, which will be comprised of a disbursement of $20 million in student funding and $48 million in AWS (Amazon Web Services) credits, will be an investment into more than one hundred PhD candidates spread across nine US universities, all focusing on pure AI disciplines such as NLP and machine learning
The numbers are clear. Amazon doesn’t have a money problem - in fact, the company secured over $35 billion in profits in just the first half of 2025 - so why the layoffs? This trend reflects a bigger picture, one where big players like Microsoft, UPS, and Meta are shedding employees left, right, and centre in a bid to be leaner, more efficient, and ready for tomorrow’s AI-ladden future. Amazon, which in its annual communication to shareholders aligned itself with startup culture and the desire to operate like one, is perhaps one of the forerunners of this movement
So, is there a Future among Layoffs?
As a student, these can be confusing times to navigate through. On one hand, you’re seeing heavy investments into AI-led programs and an emphasis on building the future generation to master AI. On the other, you’re seeing mass layoffs brought about by the very same technology. And so it’s not unusual to ask yourself, “Where do I stand in all this?”
Add being an international student to the mix, and the complications of visas and work legalities deepen the situation manifold - not to mention the added pressure of post-graduation job success being make or break in many cases
In the current scenario, the majority of layoffs are a precursor to AI, not a direct consequence. While there is noise of AI agents potentially replacing human colleagues, this has not become reality - yet. Instead, we can see this onsalught of layoffs as a course of preparation - companies are anticipating AI dominance, and they are starting to structure their workforce accordingly. It’s no secret that a leaner workforce is seen as the way to go in the looming AI period
As an international student, the best course of action is redirection. We’ve all heard the saying, ‘Do what you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’ Well, study what you love and you might not get to work at all. And okay, this is an exaggeration - but as international students, we have to make the odds work in our favor, not pit them against us
Look into hiring trends. See which degrees are sought after in today’s workplace. Is the first thing something you hate? Look for an alternative, or another, or another. Just be smart about your decisions. Go for STEM degrees - that’s a non-negotiable. As soon as you lose the STEM label and the added OPT that comes with it, your chances of being hired plummet. And network, start today and start now - doesn’t matter if you’re sitting thousands of miles away from the US. The internet is truly your treasure trove
In other news, New College of Florida has become the first institution to sign President Trump’s Funding Compact, opening the gateway to a newfound preference in government grants. How this move will sway other institutions will reveal itself in the coming days
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Tabarak Rehman