Amazon announced Tuesday that it plans to cut the company’s workforce by 14,000 to cut bureaucracy, remove layers and increase investment in its AI strategy.
This is the second-largest job cut for e-commerce giant Amazon, after cutting 22,000 jobs in 2022. Amazon had approximately 1.2 million employees as of October 31, 2024, of which more than 360,000 were in corporate, management, sales, and executive positions.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, wrote in a memo shared with employees that the move aims to make the company “even stronger” by investing resources in its “biggest bet.”
Galetti acknowledged that the decision was questionable given the company’s strong performance, but insisted that the job cuts were necessary because “the world is changing rapidly.”
“This generation of AI is the most revolutionary technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster (in existing market segments and entirely new market segments) than ever before. We’re guilty.” [sic] The need to organize more efficiently [sic]“We want to help you transition as quickly as possible for your customers and your business, with fewer layers and more ownership,” she wrote.
The job cuts come at a time when Amazon is making significant investments in its technology infrastructure to increase computing power to provide AI services.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees in June that the company would need fewer employees as it continues to deploy AI agents. “As we further deploy generative AI and agents, the way we work should also change. We will need fewer people to do some of the jobs we do today, and more people to do other types of jobs. It is difficult to know exactly where this will impact over time, but we expect companies to reduce their total workforce over the next few years as widespread use of AI across the company increases efficiency.”
tech crunch event
san francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
That focus becomes clear when you consider the company’s spending on technology infrastructure. Amazon said in its quarterly report that it spent $55.6 billion primarily on technology infrastructure in the first half of the year to support the growth of its cloud services business, Amazon Web Services.
The company’s second-quarter sales rose 13% from a year earlier to $167.7 billion. AWS accounted for 18% of total net sales.
Reuters reported on Monday that the company plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs across human resources, devices and services, operations and other departments.
The company made small job cuts in various departments. In January, Amazon cut a small number of positions in its communications and sustainability departments.
Amazon said it is giving its most affected employees 90 days to search for new roles within the company, and that hiring managers will prioritize internal candidates for new roles within the company. For those who cannot transfer within the company, the company plans to provide retirement benefits, outplacement support services, and health insurance benefits.
In 2026, the company will continue to reduce its ranks and hire in key areas while “achieving efficiency gains,” Galetti wrote.
Source link
