Amazon to slash 14,000 jobs as AI replaces humans

Andy Jassy says AI’s efficiency gains will reduce Amazon’s corporate staff headcount - REUTERS/Mike Blake

Amazon is preparing to cut 14,000 staff in one of its biggest ever rounds of job losses.

The US tech giant announced the redundancies on Tuesday, with almost 5pc of its corporate workforce to be let go as the company reduces costs and relies increasingly on artificial intelligence (AI).

Warehouse workers, who account for the majority of its 1.5 million employees, will not be affected.

The job cuts come despite Amazon’s share price being at an all-time high, with the tech giant poised to announce record third-quarter sales of around $179bn (£134bn) on Thursday.

However, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s chief executive, has repeatedly demanded that the company rely more on AI to cut costs.

Mr Jassy told staff earlier this year that AI meant the company, America’s second-biggest private employer, would need fewer staff in future.

“As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” he said.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.

“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.

Office workers are using AI to carry out research, prepare presentations and reports and automate entry-level work.

The technology has had a particularly significant impact on software engineers owing to its coding proficiency.

Several Silicon Valley giants have announced job cuts this year despite share prices being at an all-time high.

Microsoft has unveiled plans to cut 15,000 jobs, while Meta laid off 600 staff from its AI division last week.

In the company’s cavernous delivery warehouses, Amazon is increasingly relying on automation and robotics over human staff.

The company believes that robots can ultimately carry out around three quarters of the work that its human employees do, meaning it can avoid hiring around 600,000 staff.

Amazon is expected to start informing white-collar staff of the redundancies on Tuesday.

According to layoffs.fyi, a website that tracks job losses, tech companies have announced almost 130,000 job cuts this year.

Amazon was contacted for comment.

View Comments