Amazon layoffs confirmed: 14,000 jobs cut as company doubles down on AI push

Amazon

Amazon has announced plans to cut around 14,000 corporate roles as part of a major restructuring aimed at streamlining operations and doubling down on artificial intelligence. The move is part of CEO Andy Jassy’s multi-year cost-cutting drive, making it one of the company’s biggest rounds of layoffs to date.

The e-commerce and cloud giant said the layoffs are designed to make Amazon “leaner and less bureaucratic” as it invests heavily in what it calls its “biggest bets,” particularly generative AI. The job cuts, affecting roughly 4% of Amazon’s 350,000 corporate and tech employees, mark the latest phase in a broader plan to simplify management and accelerate decision-making.

“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet,” said Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and businesses.”

Amazon said that it is "working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted, including offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally". "Our recruiting teams will prioritize internal candidates to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon. For our teammates who are unable to find a new role at Amazon or who choose not to look for one, we’ll offer them transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more," said Galetti in a blog post.

Amazon, which employs 1.54 million people worldwide, has been aggressively reshaping its workforce after expanding rapidly during the pandemic. Between 2022 and 2023, it eliminated more than 27,000 jobs as part of a sweeping efficiency drive.

CEO Andy Jassy, who took over from Jeff Bezos in 2021, has emphasised that generative AI will permanently change how the company operates. He has told employees that Amazon “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”

The layoffs also reflect a wider shift across industries as companies use AI to automate workflows and cut costs. Amazon plans to continue hiring in “key strategic areas,” including AI and cloud computing, even as it trims roles elsewhere.