Amazon is cutting about 14,000 corporate jobs as part of a broader restructuring designed to streamline operations and more deeply integrate artificial intelligence into the company's global business.
The cuts, which will primarily affect the company's corporate and administrative divisions, are aimed at reducing operational layers and enabling faster decision making as Amazon invests billions in generative AI and automation.
The Seattle-based group, which employs about 1.56 million people worldwide, said the changes were necessary to position the company for the next phase of innovation and efficiency.
“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet,” the company said in a blog post.
“This is enabling companies to innovate faster than ever before. We are convinced that we need to be more organized, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move forward as quickly as possible for our customers and the business.”
Amazon's latest job cuts represent about 4% of its 350,000-strong corporate workforce, and follow a series of layoffs across the tech sector as companies reorganize to capture the productivity gains promised by generative AI.
Despite the cuts, Amazon said it would continue hiring in strategic growth areas through 2026 — particularly in cloud computing, generative AI, robotics and logistics technology, where demand remains strong.
The restructuring will see Amazon consolidate overlapping corporate functions and simplify management structures across key business units, including AWS (Amazon Web Services), retail and Prime Video.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy warned in June that the company's “next phase of AI adoption” would require “a leaner, nimbler corporate structure” to remain competitive.
Amazon's announcement follows similar moves by Google, Meta, Microsoft and other major technology firms that have cut thousands of jobs over the past 18 months as they retooled their operations around artificial intelligence.
This shift reflects a fundamental reallocation of resources – away from traditional administrative roles and toward AI model development, data engineering, and infrastructure scaling.
Analysts said the restructuring reflects a recognition that AI is changing not only products but how companies are organized internally.
“Generative AI is forcing large corporates to rethink structure, speed and skill sets,” said Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities. “The next 12 months will see continued consolidation in non-technical roles and increased investment in AI engineering capability.”
Amazon is aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities across its AWS cloud platform, e-commerce operations, and consumer devices.
The company announced earlier this year plans to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, partnerships and custom silicon chips for model training and inference workloads on AWS.
It is also developing its own big language models like Titan to compete with rivals OpenAI and Anthropic, while integrating AI features into customer-facing services from Alexa to Amazon Ads.
In September, Amazon confirmed a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, one of the leading AI start-ups, to accelerate the adoption of advanced foundation models in its ecosystem.
For Amazon, the job cuts signal a strategic pivot from scale to speed and expertise, as the company seeks to maintain agility in an era of rapid technological change.
While the company's overall headcount has stagnated following the pandemic-era expansion, Jassy's leadership has focused on profitability, automation and disciplined investment, particularly in AWS – which generates the bulk of Amazon's operating income.
Industry observers say the restructuring could help Amazon sharpen its focus amid growing competition from Microsoft, Google and Alibaba in the cloud AI race.
“This is about positioning Amazon for the next decade,” said Shannon Cross, technology analyst at Credit Suisse. “AI is not just an innovation priority – it is a structural change that touches every part of business.”
The cuts come at a time of renewed debate over the social impact of AI adoption. While Amazon insists it will continue to expand into high-skill sectors, the restructuring underscores a broader shift toward automation in white-collar roles traditionally insulated from disruption.
Economists say the move is part of a broader pattern as corporations leverage AI to increase productivity, streamline tasks and offset labor costs – likely to reshape global employment patterns in the coming decade.
For now, Amazon's message is clear: The company's future growth will depend less on the number of employees and more on how efficiently it deploys artificial intelligence to serve its 300 million customers around the world.
Amy Ingham
Amy is a newly qualified journalist specializing in business journalism with responsibility for news content at Business Matters, the UK's largest print and online source of current business news.
