Amazon is preparing for a new wave of corporate layoffs, driven by a strategic pivot toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) and efficiency gains.
The cuts are expected to heavily impact the company’s human resources department, internally known as the People eXperience and Technology (PXT) team. Reports suggest Amazon is preparing to slash up to 15 per cent of the PXT staff, which comprises over 10,000 employees globally. Other parts of Amazon’s vast consumer business are also reportedly under review for potential job losses.
The AI Efficiency Mandate
This isn’t a typical post-pandemic correction. The current restructuring is directly tied to CEO Andy Jassy’s efficiency mandate and Amazon’s massive investment in AI infrastructure, with over $100 billion committed this year to building next-generation data centers.
CEO Andy Jassy has been clear about the future, stating that the extensive use of AI is expected to “reduce our total corporate workforce” as the company gains efficiency.
CEO Andy Jassy’s Warning: “Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally… will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company.”
The Paradox of Hiring
The job cuts among corporate and white-collar roles arrive in stark contrast to Amazon’s massive operational hiring drive. The company recently announced plans to hire 250,000 seasonal employees across its US warehouses and logistics network to handle the upcoming holiday demand.
This new round of layoffs signals a deeper structural shift under Jassy’s leadership, which already oversaw the elimination of approximately 27,000 corporate roles between 2022 and 2023—the largest in Amazon’s history. For the PXT team, the latest reductions confirm that human resources operations are becoming one of the first major corporate casualties of Amazon’s AI transformation.
