Amazon layoffs have affected 14,000 corporate employees globally as the e-commerce giant shifts its focus towards artificial intelligence while trimming costs in other areas. The cuts announced recently represent approximately 4% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, though a small fraction of its total 1.55 million employees worldwide.
Despite these job reductions, the Amazon layoffs 2025 mark the company’s most considerable workforce reduction in its history. Amazon’s corporate staffing had swelled during the pandemic when millions stayed home and online spending surged dramatically. However, the company now aims to become “organised more leanly” while simultaneously increasing investments in AI technology. Furthermore, Amazon has indicated it will continue to reduce staff in the coming year, even as it plans to maintain hiring in key strategic areas, signalling a significant restructuring rather than merely cost-cutting.
Amazon Announces 14,000 Job Cuts
The American tech giant has begun notifying employees across multiple divisions as it implements its newly announced job reduction strategy. Thousands of workers received emails on Tuesday morning informing them their positions had been eliminated.
Which Departments are Affected by the Layoffs?
The Amazon layoffs reach broadly across Amazon’s corporate structure, with numerous key divisions impacted. Affected departments include:
- Human resources (potentially affecting up to 15% of HR roles)
- Devices and services (including Alexa and Fire TV)
- Operations and logistics teams
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Advertising and communications
- Prime Video and entertainment units
Internal data indicates over 80% of eliminated roles in the first wave affected retail-facing teams across e-commerce, human resources, and logistics. Additionally, more than 78% of affected US-based employees held managerial positions at levels L5-L7, suggesting Amazon is specifically targeting management layers to reduce bureaucracy.
How Many Employees are Impacted Globally?
The 14,000 Amazon layoffs represent approximately 4% of Amazon’s estimated 350,000 corporate employees. Although this is a small portion of Amazon’s overall global workforce of 1.55 million staff, the impact on corporate departments is substantial. In Washington state alone, 2,303 positions are slated to be eliminated by the end of January.
Notably, some reports suggest that these Amazon layoffs could ultimately result in as many as 30,000 positions as Amazon continues to reassess its corporate structure through 2026.
What is Amazon Offering to Laid-Off Workers?
Amazon has pledged several support measures for affected employees. Most will receive:
- A 90-day paid non-working period with full benefits
- Priority consideration when applying for other roles within Amazon
- Access to severance packages and transitional benefits
- External job placement assistance and skills training opportunities
Beth Galetti, Senior VP of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said in her announcement that the company is “working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted”. Those unable to secure new positions internally will receive “transition support including severance pay, outplacement services, health insurance benefits, and more”.
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CEO Jassy Accelerates AI Investment Strategy
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has publicly outlined an ambitious artificial intelligence strategy that directly connects to the current Amazon layoffs. Following months of internal preparation, Jassy’s vision is now taking concrete form as the company realigns its workforce towards AI-driven operations.
What did Jassy Say About AI Replacing Jobs?
In June, Jassy made a candid assessment about how artificial intelligence would transform Amazon’s workforce needs. “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 stated. Jassy explicitly predicted that AI adoption would “reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company”.
Speaking to CNBC, Jassy was equally straightforward: “Like with every technical transformation, there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that the technology actually starts to automate”. This perspective represents a significant shift from earlier corporate messaging, which emphasised AI complementing rather than replacing human workers.
How is Amazon Restructuring its Workforce?
Consequently, Amazon has implemented several initiatives to streamline operations. In September 2024, Jassy launched a “Bureaucracy Mailbox” allowing employees to report unnecessary bureaucracy or excessive processes. This programme has already received approximately 1,500 responses, resulting in more than 450 process changes.
What are the Key AI Projects Amazon is Funding?
Amazon is directing substantial capital towards AI development:
- Building an AUD 15.29 billion campus in North Carolina for cloud computing and AI infrastructure
- Investing in three additional major data centre projects across the US
- Developing proprietary AI chipsets, including Trainium and Inferentia processors
- Expanding the AWS business to compete with other major AI players
- Creating over 1,000 generative AI services and applications across all business units
Jassy has framed this investment strategy in transformative terms, telling analysts: “If you believe your mission is to make customers’ lives easier and better every day, and you believe that every customer experience will be reinvented with AI, you’re going to invest very aggressively in AI, and that’s what we’re doing”.
Amazon Reduces Bureaucracy to Boost Efficiency
Beneath Amazon layoffs lies a strategic initiative to eliminate excessive bureaucracy that has accumulated over the years of rapid growth. Andy Jassy’s vision involves transforming Amazon to “operate like the world’s largest startup” with greater urgency and ownership among staff.
Why is Amazon Flattening its Corporate Structure?
The company has directed each leadership team to increase the ratio of managers to individual contributors by at least 15% by the end of 2025’s first quarter. This approach aims to remove layers that currently create bottlenecks, such as “pre-meetings for the pre-meetings for decision meetings”. Previously, as Amazon expanded, managerial roles multiplied, resulting in slower decision-making cycles. Currently, some managers report struggling with increased workloads—one former HR employee described being assigned 21 direct reports, nearly double her previous 11.
What Internal Tools are Being Used to Identify Inefficiencies?
Chiefly, Jassy created a “Bureaucracy Mailbox” allowing employees to report unnecessary processes anonymously. This initiative has already generated approximately 1,500 responses, resulting in more than 450 process changes. Furthermore, Amazon developed “cost to serve software” as a metric to quantify efficiency in building and supporting software. This data-driven approach enables teams to express benefits in either adequate capacity or monetary value.
The Return-to-Office Mandate
Indeed, Amazon’s strict five-day office requirement—among the most stringent in tech—supports the anti-bureaucracy campaign. According to Jassy, in-person work fosters collaboration, brainstorming, teaching, and strengthens culture. Nonetheless, internal sources indicate the policy has not driven the expected voluntary departures, thereby necessitating the current redundancies.
Tech Industry Braces for AI-Driven Layoffs
The recent wave of Amazon layoffs is part of a larger pattern across the tech industry. The global tech sector has recorded 181,457 layoffs so far in 2025, with projections reaching 235,000 by year’s end.
Amazon Layoffs Compared to Meta, Google, and Microsoft
In comparison to Amazon’s 14,000 cuts, Microsoft has eliminated roughly 19,215 positions this year, primarily in its gaming and cloud divisions. Google has reduced hundreds of roles across Cloud and Sustainability teams. Meta also appears among the top ten companies implementing workforce reductions. Notably, Intel announced the most significant cuts—33,900 jobs—representing 15% of its workforce as it repositions for AI growth.
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The Future of White-Collar Work
Ford CEO Jim Farley and Amazon’s Jassy both predict AI will replace “literally half of all white-collar workers”. The International Monetary Fund estimates 60% of jobs in advanced economies are exposed to AI, with half potentially negatively affected. Since 2023, over 27,000 tech job losses have been directly attributed to AI-driven redundancy. Entry-level positions face particular vulnerability—job postings have dropped 15% year-over-year.
Is the Global Tech Slowdown Accelerating the Automation of Jobs?
US-based companies account for 66.44% of global tech layoffs, representing approximately 120,569 jobs. Economic factors, such as tariffs and trade frictions with China, have prompted companies to cut costs through automation. Simultaneously, 50% of UK companies now plan to redirect investment from staff to AI due to rising employment costs. Nevertheless, research from the New York Fed found only 1% of service firms cited AI as the reason for recent layoffs.
Conclusion – Amazon Layoffs
Amazon’s decision to cut 14,000 corporate jobs represents a significant milestone in the tech industry’s evolving relationship with artificial intelligence. These redundancies, though affecting only 4% of the corporate workforce, nevertheless signal the company’s most substantial workforce reduction to date. Undoubtedly, this strategic shift reflects Amazon’s determination to streamline operations while simultaneously doubling down on AI investments.
The layoffs primarily target management layers across multiple departments, particularly those in retail-facing teams. Meanwhile, Amazon continues developing its anti-bureaucracy initiatives through tools like the “Bureaucracy Mailbox” and its mandatory return-to-office policy. These efforts align perfectly with CEO Andy Jassy’s vision of transforming Amazon into “the world’s largest startup,” characterised by flatter hierarchies and faster decision-making processes.
Overall, Amazon layoffs strategy highlights the dual nature of artificial intelligence in today’s corporate environment—a tool for unprecedented efficiency gains but also a force driving significant workforce disruption. Accordingly, both companies and workers must adapt to this new reality where AI reshapes not just how work gets done, but who does it.
How many jobs is Amazon cutting and why?
Amazon is cutting 14,000 corporate jobs, which represents about 4% of its corporate workforce. This is part of a strategic shift to focus more on artificial intelligence while streamlining operations and reducing costs in other areas.
Which departments are most affected by the Amazon layoffs?
The Amazon layoffs are broad, affecting multiple departments, including human resources, devices and services, operations and logistics, Amazon Web Services, advertising and communications, and Prime Video and entertainment units. Over 80% of eliminated roles in the first wave affected retail-facing teams.
How is Amazon investing in AI while cutting jobs?
While reducing staff in some areas, Amazon is heavily investing in AI projects. This includes building a multi-billion-dollar AI and cloud computing campus, developing proprietary AI chipsets, expanding AWS to compete with other AI players, and creating over 1,000 generative AI services across all business units.