Business
Amazon Announcement Shows Why Workers Are Right to Worry About AI
The once-hypothetical cuts are coming, whether employees are ready or not.
On Tuesday, Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, confirmed the fears of many workers in the age of artificial intelligence: He said he expects the technology will lead to job cuts at the tech giant.
In his memo, which was posted online, Jassy did not announce immediate layoffs. He said that, in the next few years, “efficiency gains” from AI would translate to a smaller corporate workforce.
Marlo Lyons, a certified executive coach, told Business Insider that jobs will inevitably change — including outright disappearances. “So is your job at risk? Absolutely. If you don’t get on board with AI, yes, absolutely, you’re going to lose your job.”
Amazon is now one of the largest companies to explicitly state that AI will impact its employees’ jobs.
It’s not all outright layoffs — at least not yet
BI previously reported that roles that include tasks that AI can perform are disappearing from job boards faster than positions that have fewer tasks that AI can accomplish.
Shopify’s CEO said in April that, before hiring anyone new, employees must prove AI can’t do the job better. Duolingo plans to phase out contractors and replace them with AI. And Salesforce’s CEO, Marc Benioff, has said that the company might not hire engineers in 2025 because those already on the payroll are getting so much more done thanks to AI tools.
The industry you’re in matters. Office workers appear to be particularly at risk. In late May, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, suggested AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Klarna’s CEO, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, said earlier this month that he expects the impact of AI on white-collar jobs to be so significant that it will lead to a recession.
Christian Schneider, the CEO of New York-based startup fileAI, told BI that he’s already seeing job losses in corners of the tech industry, and he expects AI to exacerbate the trend.
“I’m totally expecting a tightening,” he said. “I think when we look into tech layoffs, it’s so apparent that something is changing.”
Melissa Swift, the founder and CEO of work consultancy Anthrome Insight, told BI that productivity hasn’t always increased to the same degree as tech advances. It often “ticks up slowly, like a kiddie roller coaster going up the first big hill.”
Those who aren’t keeping up risk being left behind. And refusing to acknowledge the risk doesn’t make it go away, Lyons said.
“So if you’re redesigning the workplace, and how things are getting done — whether it’s a workflow or structures of teams, or the same thing with AI — you can hold on with white knuckles, but it’s still going to happen around you,” Lyons said.
Of course, not all the jobs affected by advancements in AI will mean the workers filling them will be laid off. Jassy acknowledged in his statement that Amazon will “need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”
Schneider said some jobs will change so that typical back-office, rote tasks will fall to AI and allow more workers to take on people-facing roles. Or, officegoers once responsible for pulling and preparing data might now move to the end of the process to, for example, check the quality of the results AI produces.
While some jobs will disappear and others will evolve, Schneider said, workers are often good at adapting.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t want to underestimate people’s drive,” he said.
Business
Why AI alone can’t guarantee business success, expert cautions
As companies around the world race to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), strategy expert Shotunde Taiwo urges business leaders to look beyond the hype and focus on aligning technology with clear strategic goals.
Taiwo, a finance and strategy professional, cautions that while AI offers transformative potential, it is not a guaranteed path to success. Without a coherent strategy, organisations risk misdirecting resources, entrenching inefficiencies, and failing to deliver meaningful value from their AI investments.
“AI cannot substitute for strategic clarity,” she explains, stressing the importance of purposeful direction before deploying advanced digital tools. Business leaders, she says, must first define their objectives, only then can AI act as an effective enabler rather than an expensive distraction.
Taiwo stated that many organisations are investing heavily in AI labs, data infrastructure, and talent acquisition without clearly defined business outcomes. This approach, she notes, risks undermining the very efficiencies these technologies are meant to create.
For example, a retail business lacking a distinctive value proposition cannot expect a recommendation engine to deliver meaningful differentiation. Similarly, manufacturers without well-structured pricing strategies will find limited benefit in predictive analytics. “AI amplifies what’s already there,” she adds. “It rewards businesses with strong foundations and exposes those without.”
According to Taiwo, the true value of AI emerges when it is guided by intelligent, strategic intent. High-performing organisations use AI to solve well-defined problems aligned with commercial goals, often framed by business analysts or strategic leaders who understand both operational realities and broader business priorities.
She cites Amazon’s recommendation engine and UPS’s route optimisation algorithms as models of effective AI deployment. In both cases, technology served a clear purpose: boosting customer retention and streamlining logistics, respectively. When guided by strategy, AI becomes a force multiplier, enhancing forecasting, enabling automation, and improving personalisation where workflows are already well-defined.
On the other hand, even the most advanced AI systems falter in the absence of sound strategy. Common pitfalls include deploying machine learning models without a business case, focusing on tools rather than problems, collecting data without a clear use, and optimising narrow metrics at the expense of enterprise-wide goals. These missteps often result in underwhelming pilots and disillusioned stakeholders, issues strategic professionals are well-equipped to navigate and avoid.
In this sense, AI adoption can serve as a strategic diagnostic. Taiwo suggests that when business leaders struggle to define impactful AI use cases, it often reflects deeper ambiguity in their organisational direction. Key questions, such as where value is created, who the primary customer is, or which decisions would benefit most from improved speed or accuracy, are not technical, but fundamentally strategic.
AI, she says, acts as a mirror, revealing strengths and weaknesses in how a business is positioned, differentiated, and aligned across functions. Strategic leaders and business analysts are uniquely positioned to interpret these insights, inform course corrections, and guide effective technology investments.
Looking ahead, Taiwo argues that strategy in the AI era must be data-literate, agile, ethically grounded, and above all, human-centred. Leaders must understand what data they have, and how it can be harnessed, without needing to become technologists themselves.
Organisations must be nimble enough to act on AI-driven insights, whether through supply chain reconfiguration or dynamic pricing. Ethics, too, are critical, especially as AI increasingly impacts areas such as hiring, lending, and content moderation. “AI is not a replacement for strategy – it is a reflection of it,” she said.
In organisations with clarity and discipline, AI can unlock significant value. In those without, it risks adding cost and complexity. The responsibility for today’s leaders is to ensure that technology serves the business, not the other way around.
Business
XTransfer: Pioneering AI-Driven Transformation in B2B Foreign Trade Payment
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 11 July 2025 – In the era of global economic integration, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face both unprecedented challenges and exciting new opportunities. XTransfer, the World’s Leading & China’s No.1 B2B Cross-Border Trade Payment Platform, is empowering over 700,000 SMEs across more than 200 countries with innovative financial solutions. The company’s relentless pursuit of technological advancement, especially in artificial intelligence (AI), is redefining the standards of risk control and digital transformation in the foreign trade finance industry.
XTransfer supports global SMEs with secure and seamless cross-border payments.
TradePilot: The First Large Language Model in Foreign Trade Finance
At the core of XTransfer’s innovation is TradePilot, the first large language model (LLM) tailored for the global foreign trade financial sector. Starting development in 2023, TradePilot was designed to leverage cutting-edge AI technologies, such as multimodal information extraction, long-context processing, and AI agents, to address the unique complexities of B2B international trade.
TradePilot’s journey has been marked by rapid iteration and real-world validation. In June 2024, two versions of TradePilot outperformed both domestic and international LLMs, including GPT-4, in a professional knowledge assessment, winning first place. This achievement highlights not only XTransfer’s technical prowess but also the rising maturity of China’s AI ecosystem in mission-critical financial applications.
Enhancing Risk Control and Anti-Money Laundering
One of the most significant applications of AI at XTransfer is in risk management, particularly anti-money laundering (AML) controls. B2B cross-border trade introduces data challenges, transactions are often fragmented, unstandardized, and partially offline, making it hard to monitor and assess risks. Traditional banks, reliant on manual AML checks, have struggled to efficiently serve SMEs due to high costs and operational inefficiencies.
XTransfer’s solution is a data-driven, automated AML risk control infrastructure, powered by TradePilot. By transforming unstructured business and transaction data into structured, analyzable formats, TradePilot enables precise risk prediction and real-time anomaly detection. For example, the system can flag suspicious export patterns that deviate from a country’s industrial profile or automatically match buyer and seller information across various documents, such as proforma invoices and logistics papers, enhancing both compliance and operational efficiency.
The results speak for themselves: what once required laborious manual intervention can now be handled at scale, allowing banks and financial institutions to serve SMEs with the same rigour and security as multinational corporations. This boosts financial inclusion and levels the playing field for smaller businesses in global trade.
Intelligent Customer Service and Digital Empowerment
Beyond risk control, AI infuses every side of XTransfer’s product ecosystem. The company’s intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) system leverages TradePilot for enhanced semantic understanding, emotion recognition, and effective response generation. Since integrating TradePilot, XTransfer’s AI-driven customer service resolution rate has soared from 13% to over 84%, dramatically improving user satisfaction and operational scale.
XTransfer’s CRM also features AI-powered tools such as multilingual letter writing, instant website building, and the pioneering “AI Employee” service. These innovations help SMEs with limited technical or language resources to efficiently reach global buyers, manage operations, and establish an online presence, in as little as 30 seconds. Over 10,000 foreign trade businesses have already benefited from these services, lowering the barriers to digital adoption and accelerating their international growth.
Commitment to Data Security and Future Outlook
XTransfer’s technological architecture is built on robust, distributed computing principles, ensuring high performance and reliability. The company adheres strictly to international and regional laws regarding data privacy, employing encryption, access controls, and audit mechanisms to safeguard user data.
Looking forward, XTransfer aims further to promote the adoption of its AI-powered TradePilot model, thereby accelerating the digital transformation of the B2B foreign trade finance sector. Weitong Li, Senior Technology Director of XTransfer, emphasises that the successful deployment of TradePilot is both a testament to XTransfer’s innovation and a catalyst for smarter, safer, and more accessible global trade.
As foreign trade becomes increasingly intelligent and data-driven, XTransfer stands at the forefront, empowering SMEs to explore broader markets and seize new opportunities in the evolving global economy.
Hashtag: #XTransfer #AI #Tradepilot #LLM #LargeLanguageModel #Crossborder #Payment #SMEs
https://www.xtransfer.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/xtransfer.cn
https://x.com/xtransferglobal
https://www.facebook.com/XTransferGlobal/
https://www.instagram.com/xtransfer.global
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About XTransfer
XTransfer, the world-leading and China’s No.1 B2B Cross-Border Trade Payment Platform, is dedicated to providing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with secure, compliant, fast, convenient and low-cost foreign trade payment and fund collection solutions, significantly reducing the cost of global expansion and enhancing global competitiveness. Founded in 2017, the company is headquartered in Shanghai and has branches in Hong Kong SAR, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, the UAE, and Nigeria. XTransfer has obtained local payment licences in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, and Australia. With more than 700,000 enterprise clients, XTransfer has become the industry No.1 in China.
By cooperating with well-known multinational banks and financial institutions, XTransfer has built a unified global multi-currency clearing network and a data-based, automated, internet-based and intelligent anti-money laundering risk control infrastructure centred on SMEs. XTransfer uses technology as a bridge to link large financial institutions and SMEs around the world, allowing SMEs to enjoy the same level of cross-border financial services as large multinational corporations.
XTransfer completed its Series D financing in September 2021 and achieved unicorn status. The Company possesses a diverse composition of international investors, including D1 Capital Partners LP, Telstra Ventures, China Merchants Venture, eWTP Capital, Yunqi Capital, Gaorong Capital, 01VC, MindWorks and Lavender Hill Capital Partners.
For more information, please visit: https://www.xtransfer.com/
Business
Microsoft Veteran Devender Bansal Joins MLAI Digital as CEO & Co-founder for Global business (APAC and EMEA) to Drive Agentic AI Innovation
VMPL
New Delhi [India], July 11: MLAI Digital, the rapidly growing deep tech startup in the Agentic AI space, has leveraged its strategic footprint and product innovation by announcing this appointment of Devender Bansal as CEO (APAC and EMEA).
Devender is a technology leader with more than 2.5 decades in enterprise transformation. Prior to this, he was in charge of driving technology sales for Microsoft’s Cloud and AI business in corporate accounts across India and Southeast Asia, forging partnerships with CXOs, expanding technical teams and capturing market share across major verticals.
“MLAI Digital’s bold vision for Agentic AI, paired with the hustle and agility of a startup, really struck a chord with me,” said Devender. “We’re building something that doesn’t just automate work — it reimagines how intelligence is orchestrated across the enterprise.”
As CEO & Co-founder for APAC and EMEA, Devender will lead MLAI’s global expansion across these regions, focusing on product scaling, strategic alliances, and vertical-specific AI deployment. His goal? To build a global Agentic AI brand – a new category of intelligent systems designed to reason, act, and evolve autonomously.
The firm’s leadership in the BFSI, & strong presence in manufacturing and logistics sectors have started seeing early success for the global venture, with solutions like real-time fraud detection & predictive asset maintenance.
“We’re thrilled to have Devender onboard,” said Arpit Gupta, CTO & Founder, MLAI Digital. “His strategic mindset, deep tech acumen, and experience scaling businesses will be invaluable as we take MLAI Digital to new markets.”
Devender is equally excited about the team he’s joining. “MLAI team is one of the smartest & agile set of people to interact with,” he shared. “They’re not just building AI, they’re building it right, with purpose, ethics, and a forward-looking mindset.”
With this leadership addition, MLAI Digital is accelerating growth plans. The entity will focus on innovation concern, partnerships, and making real-world impact.
“Together, we’ll harness Agentic AI to redefine industries and position MLAI Digital as an innovation leader,” Devender added.
Media Contact:
MLAI Digital Private Limited
Email: headit@mlaitech.io
Website: www.mlaidigital.com
(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)
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