Employee burnout at AWS is reminiscent of another top firm's push to get bigger

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In today's big story, we're looking at the growing tension at AWS with rising employee burnout.

What's on deck:

• Markets: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon shares thoughts on what he'd do if he were president.
• Tech: Elon Musk drops F-bomb on fleeing advertisers.
• Business: How rising insurance costs are sucking $74 billion out of the economy.

But first, they say it's lonely at the top.

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The big story

AI fatigue at AWS

Amazon has entered the AI chat.

The tech giant has finally thrown its hat in the AI-powered chatbot ring with the unveiling of Amazon Q. Just like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Bard, Amazon Q is a generative AI chatbot users can talk to like a human.

Amazon Web Services, which developed Amazon Q, announced the new product under the fanfare of its annual event in Las Vegas, AWS re:Invent.

But like a duck in water, what appears graceful and smooth from afar actually requires a frantic pace under the surface.

Business Insider's Eugene Kim, our resident Amazon expert, has a report on the growing tension and burnout among AWS employees.

A key piece of the issue, according to Eugene's reporting, is so-called "AI fatigue" among employees.

The company was initially caught flat-footed with the release of ChatGPT last year. And while AWS has long held the spot of the top cloud provider, Microsoft and Google's cloud units have recently made considerable ground thanks to their early adoption of generative AI.

Considering Amazon conducted its largest job cuts in company history this year (with more on the way) and has a return-to-work policy that has gone over like a lead balloon, you can understand why people aren't pumped.

The burnout at AWS reminds me of another company at the top of its field facing turmoil: Goldman Sachs.

Goldman has long been considered the premier investment bank on Wall Street. But CEO David Solomon felt a need to diversify the bank's revenue after taking over the reins in 2018. He super-charged the bank's push into consumer banking, looking to tap into a booming market.

Fast forward a few years, and the results haven't been great.

The work on Goldman's consumer bank led to burnout and a tech-talent exodus, as previously reported by BI's Dakin Campbell. The effort dragged on the bank's financials to the point of impacting employee bonuses, causing more frustration.

By the fall of 2022, Goldman's consumer-bank ambitions were dead. The entire episode led some executives to question Solomon's leadership.

As famed journalist and former Goldman employee Bethany McLean put it: "When I started out at Goldman, it was the most feared firm on Wall Street. Those days are gone for good."

The comparisons between AWS and Goldman aren't apples-to-apples. While Goldman's bet on consumer banking failed, AWS's investment in generative AI could still pay off.

But both companies' struggles demonstrate the challenges with being on top, and the risk that often the only way forward is to take a step down or two.

3 things in markets

1. If I were president... the Jamie Dimon edition. Billionaire hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman asked the JPMorgan CEO what he'd do if he were president. One of his ideas: raise taxes for people like Ackman.
2. Blackstone is sitting on a boatload of cash. Here's what it's going to do with it. Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman said the giant investment firm has over $200 billion in uninvested capital. Here's why he's keen to invest it in European real estate.
3. What's next for Tiger Global? Scott Shleifer upended the world of venture investing with Tiger Global's aggressive push into the space before it eventually backfired. With the billionaire stepping down from his role leading Tiger Global's private investing unit, the industry wonders where the firm goes from here.

3 things in tech

1. Elon Musk drops "F-bomb" on fleeing advertisers. Tesla has its biggest product launch in four years today — the Cybertruck delivery event. However, during Musk's interview at the DealBook Summit on Wednesday, he barely touched on the new vehicle. Instead, the interview was at times philosophical, confrontational, and political.
2. These 66 rising stars of venture capital shook up the industry in 2023. Readers and top VCs from around the US named the top up-and-coming investors. They include people from big and small firms, across all sectors, and investing in startups of all stages.
3. Wealth Assistants claimed it could help clients make money on Amazon. Clients said they "lost everything" instead. Sixteen investors said they lost their money after the company abruptly shut down. But there were red flags, including an exec having a burglary conviction.

3 things in business

1. The cost to insure your car and home is rising — and it's only getting worse. The hidden expense is sucking $74 billion from the economy. Because this insurance is often essential, the increased prices are putting a vice on consumers' ability to spend elsewhere.
2. Everything we know about the government's investigation into American Express. Federal prosecutors have been interviewing former Amex employees. They've asked about a product that was marketed to small-business owners as a way to avoid taxes.
3. Exclusive Spotify data: the top 15 rising star podcast creators on the platform. The list of creators includes "The Basement Yard" from internet creator Joe Santagato and the business news show "Morning Brew Daily" from the newsletter publisher Morning Brew.

In other news

• Henry Kissinger, the revered and controversial statesman who once tried to return his Nobel Peace Prize, dead at 100
• Boomers seem to have traded in the child-raising village for traveling. Now millennial parents say they have no one to support them.
• OpenAI doesn't plan to offer Microsoft or other outside investors a board seat: reports.
• Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children after so many Russians died in his war with Ukraine.
• Don't be surprised if Mark Cuban runs for president.
• Forbes built a hall of shame for all the questionable people on its 30 Under 30 lists.
• I'm a culinary judge who shops at Costco. Here are the nine best things I bought this year.
• Parents who raised highly successful children say you need to do these three things.
• CHART OF THE DAY: Here's how close the stock market indexes are to their all-time highs.

What's happening today

• Tesla is delivering its first Cybertrucks. The event will happen at Tesla's gigafactory in Austin, Texas. CEO Elon Musk is expected to attend.
• Tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games go on sale. Over 400,000 tickets will be available to purchase. Each account may buy a maximum of 30 tickets.
• Earnings today: Kroger, Dell, Ulta, and other companies.

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The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor and anchor, in New York City. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.