Amazon is cutting around 14,000 corporate jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring designed to streamline operations and integrate artificial intelligence more deeply into the company’s global business.
The reductions, 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 essential to position the company for its 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.
“It’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before. We’re convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
Amazon’s latest job cuts represent roughly 4% of its 350,000-strong corporate workforce, and follow a series of layoffs across the tech sector as companies reorganise to capture the productivity gains promised by generative AI.
Despite the reductions, Amazon said it would continue to hire 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 had warned in June that the company’s “next phase of AI adoption” would require “a leaner, faster corporate structure” to stay competitive.
Amazon’s announcement follows similar moves by Google, Meta, Microsoft and other major technology firms, which have cut tens of thousands of jobs over the past 18 months as they reorient their operations around artificial intelligence.
The shift marks 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 not only transforming products but also how companies are organised 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 capacity.”
Amazon has been aggressively expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities across its AWS cloud platform, e-commerce operations, and consumer devices.
The company announced plans earlier this year to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure, partnerships, and custom silicon chips to power model training and inference workloads on AWS.
It is also developing its own large language models — such as 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 across its ecosystem.
For Amazon, the job cuts signal a strategic pivot from scale to speed and specialisation, as the company seeks to maintain agility in an era of rapid technological change.
While the company’s total headcount has stabilised after pandemic-era expansion, Jassy’s leadership has focused on profitability, automation, and disciplined investment, especially in AWS — which generates the bulk of Amazon’s operating income.
Industry observers say the restructuring could help Amazon sharpen its focus amid intensifying 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’s a structural transformation that touches every part of the 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 in high-skill areas, the restructuring underscores the broader shift toward automation in white-collar roles traditionally insulated from disruption.
Economists say the move is part of a wider pattern as corporations leverage AI to drive productivity, streamline functions, and offset labour costs — trends likely to reshape global employment patterns in the decade ahead.
For now, Amazon’s message is clear: the company’s future growth will depend less on headcount, and more on how efficiently it deploys artificial intelligence to serve its 300 million customers worldwide.
