The plan by the company founded by Jeff Bezos to reduce its workforce on a large scale is accelerating the tension between automation and human employment in an industry that prioritizes technological efficiency over job security in the face of the unstoppable advance of AI.
Amazon is preparing new and massive reductions in its corporate workforce, with layoffs that would begin next week and could affect various key areas, according to sources close to the process who spoke to Reuters.
These measures are part of one of Amazon's largest cuts in its three-decade history and would involve the elimination of approximately 30,000 corporate positions.
This figure is equivalent to 10% of its executive workforce, a considerable proportion, even though the company employs more than 1.58 million people, mostly in logistics centers.
According to the sources consulted by Reuters, the new round of layoffs would be of a similar magnitude to the first wave that occurred in October, when 14,000 administrative employees were laid off.
The new phase could begin as early as next Tuesday, although the final plans could be modified. The affected workers belong to strategic divisions such as Amazon Web Services, the retail area, Prime Video, and human resources, specifically the area known as People Experience and Technology.
Last October, the company publicly justified the cuts by citing the advancement of artificial intelligence. In an internal communication, Amazon stated: "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the internet, and it allows companies to innovate much faster than before."
The link between the layoffs and the rise of artificial intelligence was thus initially made explicit by the company.
However, Andy Jassy, Amazon's CEO, adopted a more nuanced position in the third-quarter earnings call.
Speaking to analysts, he maintained that the decision "is not really driven by financial reasons or even by artificial intelligence. It's a matter of culture."
Jassy explained that the organizational growth of recent years, especially during the pandemic, had produced a structure that was too complex and had numerous hierarchical layers.
He emphasized: "You end up with more people than before and with many more layers." According to the CEO, the decision aims to create smaller, faster-moving teams capable of making quicker decisions, an idea that resonates among large tech companies after a period of intensive hiring followed by subsequent cost-cutting measures.
In previous statements made in 2025, Jassy had already predicted a gradual reduction in Amazon's executive workforce thanks to the efficiencies associated with the deployment of artificial intelligence.
Tech companies have been integrating artificial intelligence to automate routine tasks and reduce reliance on administrative jobs, adopting AI agents that write code or assist in internal operations.
The impact of this phenomenon extends beyond Amazon and affects the entire sector. According to Resume.org, four out of ten companies plan to replace part of their teams with artificial intelligence by 2026.
Kara Dennison, head of career advising at Resume.org, told Quartz: "The adoption of AI is going to transform the job market more drastically in the next 18 to 24 months than we've seen in decades. We will see the displacement of routine tasks and the emergence of new categories focused on AI supervision, data ethics, prompt engineering, and human-AI collaboration."
The cuts that Amazon plans to implement would even surpass the record reduction recorded in 2022, when the tech company eliminated 27,000 jobs amid a sector-wide slowdown.
This process is not an isolated phenomenon: firms such as Meta, Citi, BlackRock, Macy's, and large logistics operators have announced 5,450 layoffs for 2026. Microsoft, although subject to rumors about staff reductions, has publicly denied the existence of mass layoffs.
In the previous round of layoffs, affected employees remained on the payroll for 90 days, during which time they could apply for internal openings or seek new opportunities. That period ends this Monday.
These moves come amid a slowdown in job growth: according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, last year marked the slowest pace of job creation since 2003, with more than 1.1 million positions eliminated through November, a 54% increase compared to the previous year. In October alone, more than 60,000 layoffs were announced at Amazon, UPS, and Target.
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