Amazon committed last week to spend $700 million on retraining a third of its U.S. workforce. But the e-commerce giant’s effort, intended to equip workers with skills needed to compete in the new economy, drew mixed reviews from a group of tech executives and human capital experts gathered at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday.
No one disputed the value of retraining workers. But many in the group, convened to debate prospects of “the future worker,” questioned the scale of Amazon’s investment relative to the magnitude of the challenges with which workers—and employers—in the new, increasingly automated economy must contend.
