Amazon to Cut 30,000 Corporate Jobs as AI and Automation Take Over

Amazon’s Massive Layoff Targets HR, Devices, and Cloud Teams as Company Bets Big on AI and Automation for Efficiency

The tech and retail giant Amazon has initiated a sweeping reduction of its corporate workforce, moving to cut as many as 30,000 positions beginning Tuesday. According to multiple sources cited in a Reuters report, this marks the largest corporate layoff since the one conducted in 2022.

The job reduction targets around 10% of Amazon’s roughly 350,000 office-based staff, though it represents only a small fraction of its total global workforce of about 1.55 million.

This latest move responds to the company’s earlier rapid hiring during the pandemic, when demand surged and expansion accelerated. Amazon seeks to align its workforce with a changed economic climate, slower consumer spending, and rising pressure on margins.

Departments and Reasons Behind the Job Cuts

Divisions expected to be affected include human resources, known internally as the People Experience and Technology (PXT) unit, along with its devices, services, operations, and cloud units. The full scope of the cuts remains unclear and may evolve.

In preparation for the notifications, Amazon trained managers on Monday to handle communications with impacted teams. Emails to affected employees are expected to start on Tuesday morning.

The restructure ties closely to Amazon’s increasing reliance on automation and artificial intelligence. CEO Andy Jassy previously warned that the work of many in corporate roles could be handled by AI tools, and flagged a continued focus on efficiency and reducing bureaucracy.

Shift Toward Automation and Efficiency

Amazon’s previous large-scale cutbacks took place beginning in late 2022 and into 2023, when around 27,000 roles were eliminated. The current round surpasses those earlier actions in scale.

From a financial standpoint, Amazon shares rose about 1.2% in response to the news, closing near $226.97, reflecting investor acknowledgement of the cost-cutting logic.

Beyond the immediate job numbers, this development signals a broader shift in how major tech companies revise their business models. With automation and AI becoming core to operations, corporate staffing is under sharper review. 

Amazon appears to be taking an early step. Analysts highlight this layoff as an indicator that the company believes its AI productivity gains are now large enough to support a significant workforce reduction.

Employees working for Amazon are experiencing sudden and radical transformations inside the company: the return-to-office policy that required workers to be at the office five days a week did not result in the expected number of voluntary resignations in some departments, hence the company decided to categorize some non-compliance as employees quitting voluntarily. This situation might have accelerated the restructuring process.

Amazon’s move to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs reflects a clear shift from pandemic-era expansion toward a more streamlined, efficiency-focused model driven by automation and AI. The complete result is still uncertain, but it is undoubtedly a major watershed moment in the way the largest employer on the planet manages its human resources and corporate expenses.