Only one week after a report that Amazon needed to replace 75% of its workforce with robots, the web retail large has introduced that it’s shedding 14,000 workers to cut back “forms” and spend money on “our largest bets” — particularly, artificial intelligence.
“This technology of AI is probably the most transformative know-how we have seen because the web, and it is enabling corporations to innovate a lot sooner than ever earlier than (in present market segments and altogether new ones),” mentioned Beth Galetti, SVP of Individuals Expertise and Know-how, in a blog post on Tuesday. “We’re satisfied that we have to be organized extra leanly, with fewer layers and extra possession, to maneuver as rapidly as doable for our clients and enterprise.”
However a spokesperson for Amazon mentioned to not blame synthetic intelligence for a lot of the job losses.
“AI will not be the explanation behind the overwhelming majority of reductions,” an organization consultant informed CNET. The spokesperson mentioned the reductions are a part of the corporate’s effort at “lowering layers, growing possession, and serving to cut back forms to drive pace and possession, and be set as much as invent, collaborate, be related, and ship the best possible for purchasers.”
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Citing data from Amazon staff, Reuters said the Amazon departments most affected can be units, promoting, Prime Video, HR and Amazon Net Companies. Twitch has additionally reportedly been affected.
Amazon’s main layoff as we speak is impacting Twitch.
The precise quantity will not be identified at the moment, however some affected people have been knowledgeable, and an inner e mail states that will probably be “a small quantity.” pic.twitter.com/KOsGAG3P7G— Zach Bussey 🇨🇦 (@zachbussey) October 28, 2025
Reuters additionally reported that there can be extra job cuts sooner or later, bringing the overall job losses to 30,000.
The layoffs are reportedly the largest in Amazon history, and are available simply months after CEO Andy Jassy outlined his vision for a way the corporate would quickly ramp up its improvement of generative AI and AI agents. The cuts are the newest in a wave of layoffs this year as tech giants together with Microsoft, Accenture, Salesforce and India’s TCS have diminished their workforces by hundreds in what has turn out to be a frenzied push to spend money on AI.
In a report issued earlier in October, it was projected that the worldwide AI infrastructure market — pushed primarily by the necessity to construct massive data centers — would grow from $26.18 billion in 2024 to $221.40 billion by 2034, an annual progress fee of practically 24%.
Amazon is the third-largest employer within the US, however can be pushing additional into robotic staff. The e-commerce large already has more than 1 million robots working in its supply and achievement community — two-thirds of the corporate’s human workforce. Amazon reportedly desires to automate 75% of its operations. A CNBC report mentioned Amazon could save $4 billion yearly if it automates as a lot because it plans to in its warehouses.
The important thing to Amazon’s automation plans is a fast and large funding in AI. In his weblog submit on June 17, Jassy mentioned, “Immediately, we have now over 1,000 generative AI companies and purposes in progress or constructed, however at our scale, that is a small fraction of what we are going to in the end construct. We’ll lean in additional within the coming months.”
Jassy mentioned AI brokers will have the ability to carry out numerous duties, pace up innovation, and assist Amazon keep “customer-obsessed, ingenious, fast-moving, lean, scrappy.”
These issues will not matter a lot to the hundreds of Amazon workers who misplaced their jobs Tuesday. Kristi Coulter, a former 12-year Amazon worker and creator of the ebook Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career, criticized the corporate in a post on LinkedIn. RTO stands for “return to workplace,” referencing the truth that Amazon lately made all workers cease working from residence.
Wait, I am sorry: Amazon made folks relocate, swap their youngsters’ colleges, and bookend their days with site visitors for RTO solely to put them off through a 3 a.m. textual content? What occurred to the vibe and conversations that solely being collectively on the workplace may permit?
‘Subsequent huge wave’
Longtime tech-industry analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight says the layoffs are a chance to streamline operations and spend money on AI infrastructure.
“Layoffs are usually cyclical, and right here lies the chance to streamline operations forward of the subsequent huge wave pushed by AI,” Pescatore informed CNET. “With larger capital expenditures, corporations are retaining an in depth eye on margins. Having mentioned this, we at the moment are seeing the primary indicators of this battle for supremacy rising as corporations compete to lure high expertise from key rivals.”
Pescatore additionally mentioned fears of tariff impacts and regulatory uncertainty within the US and Europe are additionally partly guilty for layoffs.
