Amazon plans fresh wave of job cuts as AI reshapes workforce

San Francisco: E-commerce giant Amazon is preparing a fresh round of corporate job cuts that could see thousands of roles eliminated as soon as next week, according to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the matter.

The layoffs are expected to be similar in scale to cuts announced in October, when the company reduced about 14,000 white-collar roles. Reuters earlier reported that Amazon is aiming to cut 30,000 corporate jobs in total as it reshapes its workforce.

The latest cuts could begin as early as Tuesday and may affect teams across Amazon Web Services (AWS), retail, Prime Video and human resources, sources told Reuters. They cautioned that plans could still change. Amazon declined to comment on the report.

The move comes as large technology companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to automate tasks, write software code and streamline operations. Amazon previously linked its job cuts to the rapid adoption of AI tools, describing the technology as the most transformative since the internet, Reuters said.

However, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy later told analysts that the reductions were not driven by finances or AI alone, but by company culture. He said layers of management and internal bureaucracy had built up over time, making teams slower and less efficient, according to Reuters.

Jassy has also said Amazon’s corporate workforce is likely to shrink further as AI helps teams do more with fewer people.

While the planned cuts sound large, they represent a small share of Amazon’s total workforce of about 1.58 million employees, most of whom work in warehouses and fulfilment centres. The reductions would amount to nearly 10 per cent of its corporate staff, Reuters reported.

The latest round would be Amazon’s biggest layoff exercise in years, following the elimination of about 27,000 jobs in 2022. Employees affected by the October cuts were given a 90-day period to apply for internal roles or seek new jobs — a window that expires this week.

Amazon, however, continues to expand consumer services in key markets, including the UAE. Amazon recently launched “Amazon Now” in the UAE, offering faster delivery options as competition intensifies in the region’s e-commerce and quick-commerce space.