Amazon.com Inc. said on Wednesday it plans to cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, marking a second major round of layoffs in three months as the company moves to streamline management layers and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across its operations.
The latest reductions deepen a restructuring effort that began last year and underscore how AI-driven automation is reshaping workforce strategies at some of the world’s largest technology companies.
Second major round of layoffs targets corporate roles
Amazon said affected US-based corporate employees will be given 90 days to search for a new internal role, alongside severance and transition support.
The details were outlined by Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, in a blog post.
“We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” Galetti said.
The job cuts follow Amazon’s decision in late October to eliminate 14,000 white-collar roles.
Taken together, the two rounds bring announced corporate reductions to roughly 30,000 positions, a scale that echoes the rolling layoffs carried out in late 2022 and early 2023, when about 27,000 jobs were cut.
Reuters previously reported that the second round of layoffs was in the works and would affect teams across Amazon Web Services, retail, Prime Video, and human resources.
AI and management layers drive restructuring
Chief executive officer Andy Jassy has repeatedly emphasized the need to cut bureaucracy and management layers that built up during a pandemic-era hiring surge.
Last summer, he warned employees that advances in artificial intelligence would lead to job losses as more tasks become automated.
The latest cuts highlight how AI tools are increasingly being used to handle duties ranging from routine administrative work to complex coding tasks, allowing companies to operate with leaner corporate teams.
Industry-wide, tech groups have been reassessing staffing needs as AI assistants improve in speed and capability.
Amazon has also been investing heavily in robotics across its warehouse network, aiming to speed up packaging and delivery, reduce reliance on human labor, and lower costs in its core e-commerce business.
Corporate workforce impact remains contained
Despite the scale of the announcement, the layoffs affect a relatively small share of Amazon’s overall workforce.
The company employed about 1.57 million people as of Sept. 30, most of whom work in fulfillment centers and warehouses.
Its corporate workforce totals roughly 350,000 employees, meaning the latest 16,000 cuts represent about 4.6% of that group.
Even if the full 30,000 corporate roles flagged across both rounds are eliminated, they would still account for a small fraction of Amazon’s total headcount, though nearly 10% of its corporate staff.
Amazon’s moves mirror a broader trend among major technology companies that rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 demand boom and are now restructuring.
Firms, including Meta Platforms and Microsof,t have also cut jobs while refocusing investment toward artificial intelligence and efficiency gains.
On Tuesday, Amazon Web Services employees received a premature email mentioning layoffs.
The post Amazon to cut 16,000 corporate jobs as AI push deepens, bureaucracy trimmed appeared first on Invezz
