E-commerce giant Amazon is set to eliminate around 14,000 corporate positions globally as it redirects its resources toward artificial intelligence and tighter operational efficiency.
In an internal memo to employees, senior vice-president of People Experience & Technology Beth Galetti explained this move is part of Amazon’s effort to “reduce layers and bureaucracy,” streamline decision-making and redeploy talent and capital toward the company’s largest strategic bets.
Galetti emphasized that every major region – including the UK – will feel the impact, with office roles among those targeted. Affected employees will be granted a 90-day internal job search window, and the company will support transitions with severance and benefit continuation.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made no secret of his expectation that generative AI and internal “agentic” systems will change how work is done, reducing the number of people needed for certain tasks while creating demand for new, more strategic roles.
“As we roll out more generative AI and agents … we will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” he wrote in a June memo.
The latest job cuts amount to roughly 4% of Amazon’s corporate workforce (which comprises about 350,000 employees), and they come even as the company reports solid growth in some of its core businesses, such as cloud computing.
Meanwhile, Amazon is accelerating investment in its AI infrastructure and data-centers, committing billions of dollars to keep pace with rivals such as Microsoft, Google and Meta Platforms.
The workforce reduction signals a strategic pivot from scaling headcount to bolstering automation and next-generation AI capabilities.
For employees and job-seekers, this marks a clear shift: expertise in AI, automation and agile workflows is increasingly vital. For investors and analysts, it highlights Amazon’s intention to operate more like a high-velocity startup rather than a massive bureaucracy.
