Amazon is preparing its most significant corporate job reductions in years, signaling how artificial intelligence is increasingly reshaping the white-collar workforce at major technology companies.
The retail and tech giant expects to eliminate up to 30,000 corporate positions, with layoffs anticipated to begin by October 28, 2025. This move represents nearly 10% of Amazon’s approximately 350,000 corporate staff.
This marks Amazon’s largest such reduction since late 2022 and early 2023, when the company cut 27,000 employees. The upcoming cuts are expected to impact a wide range of departments, including human resources, devices and services, and various operational units.
The decision aligns with previous reports, including an internal memo from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Jassy explicitly stated that as the company increasingly integrates AI-controlled technology into its operations, the demand for corporate positions will decrease.
Corporate roles targeted in the reductions span multiple functions. These include finance, human resources, marketing, operations/administration, consulting, and information technology.
Specific positions range from financial analysts and HR managers to digital marketers, project managers, and software engineers. These roles typically require specialized hard skills like accounting, labor law, or programming, alongside soft skills such as effective communication and analytical thinking.
The expanding use of AI in corporate functions offers significant benefits, including enhanced efficiency and the rapid, accurate execution of repetitive tasks. This allows human employees to focus on more strategic work, potentially leading to long-term cost reductions for the company.
However, the shift also presents notable drawbacks. Chief among these is the risk of widespread job displacement, particularly for routine roles. High initial implementation costs and AI’s current limitations in creativity and emotional intelligence are also concerns.
The evolving employment model suggests a transformation rather than a complete elimination of jobs. Employees are increasingly expected to transition from operators to controllers or designers of AI systems.
“AI Fluency” – the ability to formulate prompts, adapt AI outputs, and leverage them for business value – is emerging as a critical new skill. Organizations and individuals who quickly adapt to using AI as an efficiency tool are expected to gain a significant competitive advantage.
While the corporate reductions are substantial, they represent a smaller proportion of Amazon’s overall workforce, which totals approximately 1.55 million employees. The majority of these are in warehouse and operational roles.