‘We expect that [AI] will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,’ said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in June. The company is reportedly laying off up to 15 percent of its HR staff.
Amazon is reportedly laying off up to 15 percent of its staff in its human resources division with additional layoffs in other divisions.
As part of a broad AI-driven restructuring, Amazon is preparing to lay off a significant number of employees inside the company’s HR division, known as the People eXperience and Technology (PXT), according to a report by Fortune citing multiple sources.
Amazon’s PXT division has over 10,000 employees worldwide, Fortune reported, including technology staff, a recruiting team and other traditional HR roles.
[Related: Google Cloud Layoffs Hit Employees As Sales Reach Record Highs]
Amazon did not respond to comment by press time on whether the layoffs were happening or if any employees at AWS would be impacted.
CEO Andy Jassy: AI Will ‘Reduce Our Total Corporate Workforce’
In a companywide letter to employees in June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company expects to “reduce” its corporate workforce due to “efficiency gains” in artificial intelligence.
“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today and more people doing other types of jobs,” said CEO Jassy in his letter to employees.
“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,” Amazon’s CEO said.
Jassy said employees “who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers, will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company.”
Amazon’s CEO said his company plans to spend $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025 in a move to expand its AI and cloud data centers.
AWS Layoffs In 2025
Amazon’s layoff news Wednesday comes a few months after AWS confirmed to CRN that the cloud and AI arm of Amazon eliminated some roles across AWS.
“We’ve made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS,” said an Amazon spokesperson in an email to CRN in July. “These decisions are necessary as we continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”
Several groups within AWS were impacted by the layoffs, although the company did not provide details.
Amazon is expected to report its quarterly financial earnings this month.
