Amazon is preparing to cut thousands more jobs as part of a sweeping overhaul driven by artificial intelligence and internal restructuring, according to reports.
The world’s largest retailer is expected to announce a second round of layoffs as soon as next week, following the removal of 14,000 white-collar roles in October. The latest cuts are expected to be of a similar scale, taking Amazon closer to its longer-term goal of shedding around 30,000 positions.
The company, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, who remains executive chairman and its largest individual shareholder, employs around 1.58 million people globally. While the planned reductions represent a small fraction of its total workforce, they amount to almost 10 per cent of Amazon’s corporate staff.
According to Reuters, the cuts are expected to affect teams across Amazon Web Services, retail operations, Prime Video and the company’s human resources division, known internally as People Experience and Technology. Other business units could also be impacted.
Amazon previously linked the October job cuts to the rapid adoption of AI, telling staff in an internal memo that the technology represented the most significant shift since the advent of the internet, enabling companies to innovate at unprecedented speed.
However, Andy Jassy later played down the idea that the layoffs were primarily driven by cost pressures or AI alone. Speaking during the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Jassy said the reductions were more about organisational design.
“It’s culture,” he told analysts. “You end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers.”
Jassy has previously warned that Amazon’s corporate workforce would shrink over time as efficiencies gained from AI reduce the need for certain roles. Like many large technology companies, Amazon has been increasingly using AI to write software code and deploying so-called AI agents to automate routine tasks.
The company showcased a new generation of AI models at its annual Amazon Web Services conference in December, underlining how central the technology has become to its future strategy.
If confirmed, the latest reductions would mark the largest layoffs in Amazon’s three-decade history. The company previously cut around 27,000 jobs in 2022 as it adjusted to slowing growth following the pandemic boom.
Employees affected by the October round of layoffs were kept on the payroll for 90 days, during which they could apply for internal roles or seek work elsewhere. That period is due to expire on Monday, adding to expectations that a fresh wave of announcements is imminent.
The move highlights how even the biggest technology groups are reshaping their workforces as AI transforms how corporate functions operate — raising fresh questions about the long-term impact of automation on white-collar employment.
