Amazon begins mass layoffs amid the expansion of artificial intelligence

Amazon announced it will lay off about 14,000 corporate workers as part of the first stage of a “global downsizing” process, which is linked to the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

Andy Jassy , ​​Amazon's CEO, expressed plans to reduce costs at the company in response to the rise of AI .

“ The reductions we are announcing today are a continuation of our efforts to further strengthen ourselves by cutting red tape, eliminating layers, and moving resources to ensure we are investing in our biggest bets ,” said Beth Galetti , vice president of people and technology.

This week, Reuters reported that Amazon plans to cut up to 30,000 corporate jobs starting this Tuesday.

Last year, the company detailed that it has approximately 1.56 million full-time workers; 350,000 on the corporate payroll.

In the last two years, Amazon has carried out gradual staff reductions in subsidiaries such as books, devices and its podcast business Wondery .

Beth Galetti insisted that the cuts have helped “teams move faster,” and indicated that the company will continue to reduce staff in some areas, “and hire in others” through 2026.

He also added that most of the affected workers would be given 90 days to find new employment, and that their recruitment teams would give priority to those candidates.

According to the company's statement, the push to reduce management levels and rely more on AI comes from CEO Andy Jassy.

Amazon is expected to invest $118 billion in capital expenditures this year, primarily for building AI and cloud infrastructure.

“ This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before ,” Galetti said.