Amazon has announced plans to lay off 14,000 of its corporate employees to cut down costs and prepare the company for wider AI integration.
Reuters first reported on Monday, October 27, that the Seattle-based giant is aiming to reduce its workforce by as many as 30,000 people, but the rumour was not confirmed until Tuesday morning when the company sent a note to staff.
Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said the reductions aim “to get [the company] even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs”.
According to Galetti, the generation of AI is allowing companies to innovate quicker than ever before and to achieve that level, Amazon needs “to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business”.
Back in June 2025, Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy hinted at the company’s plans to initiate a mass layoff because of the growing use of AI.
“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done.“
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” he admitted.
What follows next?
Ms Galetti confirmed that Amazon will continue to hire “in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realise efficiency gains”.
The e-commerce giant omitted names of the affected departments, but media outlets have announced that the cuts will hit Prime Video, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alexa, Human Resources (HR), operations, advertising, and devices units among other departments.
According to the memo sent on Tuesday morning, all employees will be given 90 days to look for a new role internally.
In cases where such positions are not available, Amazon will offer “transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more”.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Philippines develops AI fact-checking tool to combat disinformation
Has that happened before?
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the US with over 1.54 million staffers.
About 350,000 are employed in the corporate divisions, meaning that the current layoffs of 14,000 people represent about 4 percent of that segment.
While that number appears staggering, this is not the first large-scale layoff at Amazon.
Between 2022 and 2023, the company reduced its workforce by 27,000 employees, a move the CEO attributed to the worsening global economy at the time.
According to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, this step “represents a deep cleaning of Amazon’s corporate workforce”.
“The company’s cuts are the latest in a long line of efforts to make Amazon more efficient and focused,” he continued.
“Markets across the world are tightening at the same time as underlying costs are rising.”
“Amazon is not immune to this, and it needs to act if it wants to continue with a good bottom line performance,” Saunders concluded.
Move criticised by Senator
Earlier on Tuesday, US Senator Bernie Sanders called on Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, over an article published in the New York Times where it is revealed that Amazon managers believe up to 500,000 workers could be replaced by robots.
“What are Amazon’s plans to provide help and support for the many hundreds of thousands of workers you’ll be replacing with robots and AI?” he asked.
“If Amazon succeeds on its massive automation plan, it will have a profound impact on blue-collar workers throughout America and will likely be used as a model by large corporations throughout America,” Sanders wrote in a letter.
READ NEXT: Spotify to hike UK subscription price as vinyl sales surge
Angelica N. Hall 
Shameeka Voyiya 
Carmela Calling