Amazon is preparing to lay off as many as 30,000 corporate employees beginning Tuesday, marking its largest round of job cuts since 2022 and underscoring how automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly reshaping white-collar work.
According to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the matter, the layoffs will affect multiple divisions, including human resources, operations, devices and services, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The cuts represent roughly 10 percent of Amazon’s 350,000-member corporate workforce but only a fraction of its global headcount of 1.55 million employees.
The move reflects a deepening shift within Amazon’s corporate structure, where advances in AI-driven tools are allowing the e-commerce and cloud giant to achieve new levels of productivity, but at the expense of traditional office jobs.
“Amazon is likely realising enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force,” said Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst, adding that the company faces short-term pressure to offset heavy investments in AI infrastructure.
The layoffs are part of CEO Andy Jassy’s broader efficiency campaign, which aims to eliminate what he has called excess bureaucracy.
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Over the past year, Jassy has reorganised management layers, introduced an anonymous feedback system that has yielded over 1,500 employee suggestions, and implemented more than 450 internal process changes.
In June, Jassy signalled that AI integration was beginning to reshape corporate roles, saying automation would likely reduce the need for repetitive and manual tasks. Insiders say that many support and administrative functions, particularly in HR and back-office operations, have become increasingly redundant as new AI systems take root.
Managers overseeing affected teams were briefed on Monday and trained on how to communicate the layoffs, with email notifications expected to start Tuesday morning. The company’s People Experience and Technology (PXT) group, Amazon’s internal HR arm, could face cuts of up to 15 percent, according to some reports.
Beyond cost reduction, Amazon has also tightened its workplace rules. The company recently mandated five days of in-office attendance per week, one of the most stringent return-to-office policies among major tech firms. Employees unwilling or unable to comply, particularly remote staff living far from Amazon offices, are being treated as having voluntarily resigned, effectively saving the company severance costs.
The latest layoffs come amid a broader wave of job reductions across the global tech sector. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 98,000 tech workers have lost their jobs so far in 2025, following 153,000 in 2024.
Earlier this year, Meta Platforms announced fresh rounds of layoffs across Europe, Asia, and Africa, sparing only countries with strict labour protections such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
For Amazon, the timing reflects a growing confidence in AI’s ability to manage workflows, streamline logistics, and cut administrative overhead. Analysts say the company’s cost-saving push mirrors a broader transition sweeping corporate America, where automation is no longer confined to factories or warehouses but is increasingly taking over white-collar roles once considered safe.
