Is AI costing jobs? Amazon confirms around 14,000 cuts to its corporate workforce

US tech giant Amazon has announced that it is cutting about 14,000 corporate positions, with communications from management to the affected teams starting on Tuesday.

The reductions are part of the company's efforts to "reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs," the company said in a statement.

Most employees affected have 90 days to look for a new role internally, said Amazon, adding that those made redundant can expect transition support, including severance pay.

Amazon did not say which teams are being impacted, but Reuters previously reported that the company's cloud, retail, communications and devices divisions have generally been the target of redundancies.

The online retail and cloud services giant previously announced a total of approximately 27,000 job cuts in 2022.

Across large technology companies, there is a general trend of aiming to reduce bureaucracy and increase the use of artificial intelligence. But as their AI spending has been climbing, it has been pressuring these tech companies to carry out short-term cost-cutting measures elsewhere, according to analysts.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in June that the increased use of artificial intelligence tools would likely lead to further job cuts, particularly through automating repetitive and routine tasks, as cited by Reuters.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Amazon plans to replace more than half a million jobs with robots, citing internal documents.

The CEO also said in July, during Amazon’s quarterly earnings call, "Automation and robotics are also important contributors to improving cost efficiencies and driving better customer experiences over time."

According to layoffs.fyi, a site monitoring job cuts in the tech sector, more than 200 tech companies have announced over 120,000 job cuts so far this year, including 15,000 at Microsoft, 22,000 at Intel.

This compares with nearly 153,000 employees made redundant at more than 500 tech companies in 2024.

Amazon shares rose 1.2% on Monday. The company is due to report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday.