Amazon is cutting approximately 14,000 corporate roles globally as part of an ongoing restructuring effort aimed at reducing bureaucracy and increasing speed, driven partly by the transformative pace of artificial intelligence.
The cuts were announced to employees on Tuesday in a message from Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, reports The Verge, citing the internal memo published by Amazon. The number is lower than the 30,000 job losses previously rumoured.
Galetti stated the reductions are a “continuation of this work to get 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”.
Addressing why cuts are happening despite the company performing well, Galetti explicitly linked the decision to AI’s impact on innovation speed.
AI a transformative technology
“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” Galetti wrote. “We’re convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
Most affected employees will have 90 days to look for new roles internally, with recruiting teams prioritising internal candidates. Those unable to find new roles or choosing to leave will receive transition support, including severance pay, outplacement services, and health insurance benefits.
Looking ahead to 2026, Galetti stated Amazon expects “to continue hiring in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realise efficiency gains,” suggesting further cuts may occur.
The move follows major layoffs totalling 27,000 workers in late 2022 and early 2023. It also aligns with CEO Andy Jassy’s June message, which highlighted generative AI as key to achieving efficiency gains and setting strategic direction, with the company aiming to use automation, robotics, and AI to reduce labour costs.
