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Tech giant Amazon has announced a new round of corporate job reductions that will affect 14,000 employees worldwide as the company moves to streamline operations and accelerate investment in artificial intelligence (AI). In a blog post, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President for People Experience and Technology of Amazon, said leaders were communicating directly with affected teams and individuals, and that the changes form part of a broader effort to simplify organisational layers and refocus resources. While her post places the figure at about 14,000 corporate roles, some reports indicate the number could be larger over time, with as many as 30,000 corporate positions under review. The job cuts are concentrated in office-based functions rather than frontline warehouse roles and cover areas such as human resources, devices and services, advertising, and parts of cloud infrastructure. Galetti noted the moves are part of the company adapting to long-term changes in how work is done. She emphasised the need to reduce bureaucracy and redeploy people and investment into priority areas, including AI and cloud computing. She also said it would provide internal redeployment opportunities for some staff. “We’re working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted, including offering most employees 90 days to look for a new role internally (the timing will vary some based on local laws), and our recruiting teams will prioritise internal candidates to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon,” Galetti remarked. She added that employees who are unable or decide not to take up another role within Amazon will receive transition support, which includes severance pay, outplacement assistance, health coverage, and other benefits. Historically, Amazon has used internal hiring processes to transfer staff where possible, but not every affected person will find a match. The uncertainty is likely to be felt most by those in the functions the company has identified as susceptible to automation. The announcement is consistent with a wider trend among large technology firms that hired heavily during the pandemic and are now rebalancing headcount as growth stabilises. For Amazon, leaders have been explicit that AI will both create new opportunities and automate routine corporate tasks, prompting a reassessment of the size and shape of teams. That makes the current cuts not simply an exercise in trimming costs but a strategic repositioning for a company that is investing heavily in AI infrastructure. A meaningful portion of Amazon’s global corporate workforce is based in India. It operates a substantial corporate presence in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, spanning offices for technology, operations and customer support. Reports suggest the announced cuts will touch India too, although the company has not released a country-by-country breakdown of roles affected. Lawmakers and advocacy groups have in the past scrutinised large-scale tech layoffs and the use of contractor and visa programmes. With AI seen as a driver of productivity, industry experts warn of concentrated job displacement in predictable areas such as HR administration and routine engineering tasks, while others say reallocation of talent could create new, higher-value roles over time. (Edited by Suman Singh)
