Amazon to cut 14,000 corporate jobs amid aggressive AI expansion

Amazon announced plans to cut around 14,000 corporate positions, marking one of its largest workforce reductions since 2023. The move comes as the e-commerce and technology giant intensifies its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure investments while continuing to streamline operations.

The layoffs, representing roughly 4% of Amazon’s 350,000-member corporate workforce, will primarily affect administrative and managerial roles. The company said the cuts are aimed at reducing bureaucracy and redirecting resources toward high-growth areas such as AI, cloud computing, and logistics.

“The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of our efforts to become stronger by reducing layers, eliminating redundancy, and investing in what matters most to customers,” said Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, in a message to employees.

Affected employees will be notified immediately and given 90 days to find new internal roles. Those unable to secure positions within the company will receive severance packages, health benefits, and outplacement support, Amazon said.

The decision follows CEO Andy Jassy’s comments earlier this year, predicting that generative AI would reshape Amazon’s workforce in the coming years. “If your mission is to make customers’ lives easier, and every experience will be reinvented with AI, you invest aggressively,” Jassy said in May. He revealed that Amazon already has over 1,000 AI-driven applications and plans to expand significantly, including through its next-generation voice assistant, Alexa+.

Since early 2024, Amazon has pledged $10 billion each toward new data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina, as part of its strategy to strengthen AWS (Amazon Web Services) and compete with rivals Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI in the booming AI sector.

Industry analysts view the layoffs as a sign of strategic repositioning rather than distress. “Unlike the Target layoffs, Amazon is operating from a position of strength,” said Neil Saunders, Managing Director at GlobalData. “The company continues to post solid growth, but these cuts mark a shift from human capital to technological infrastructure.”

Amazon’s overall workforce currently around 1.56 million globally had nearly doubled during the pandemic as online shopping surged. The latest move indicates the company is still recalibrating after years of rapid expansion.

The layoffs are Amazon’s largest since 2023, when it cut 27,000 jobs over multiple rounds. Analysts suggest more restructuring could follow as the company balances workforce size with rising investment demands in AI and logistics.

Amazon will release its quarterly financial results on Thursday. In its most recent report, the company’s cloud division, AWS, recorded 17.5% growth, underscoring its central role in Amazon’s future strategy.