(Oct 28): Amazon.com Inc plans to eliminate roughly 14,000 corporate jobs just months after chief executive officer Andy Jassy warned that AI will shrink the company’s workforce.
The downsizing marks Amazon’s second round of reductions in about as many years. Jassy signalled in June that the company’s staff count would likely fall as it increases its use of artificial intelligence to complete tasks normally handled by people. Those comments touched off panic among workers, who trawled anonymous online chat rooms for insights about potential job cuts.
Across industries, business leaders are increasingly exploring not just new AI services, but also ways in which the technology can replace human functions. The cuts at Amazon will span roles from logistics and payments to video games and the cloud-computing unit, according to people familiar with the matter.
“The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said Tuesday in a blog post.
The company will increase hiring in some parts of the business and the 14,000 number was an overall workforce reduction, Galetti said. Reuters reported earlier that as many as 30,000 people would lose their jobs.
Cuts on that scale would surpass the rolling reductions in late 2022 and early 2023 that ultimately ensnared more than 27,000 corporate employees, as Jassy looked to reduce costs after a pandemic-era boom. Since then, there has been a steady drip of more modest layoffs targeting individual teams.
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The online retailer and cloud computing provider, which employed 1.55 million people globally as of June 30, is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on Thursday. Jassy’s tenure has been punctuated by job cuts and the shuttering of various projects.
The CEO has stressed that more of the company’s work should be automated, and that it remains bloated from a Covid-era hiring binge despite trimming jobs over the past three years, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Signs of corporate belt-tightening emerged soon after Jassy’s comments in June. Amazon set more aggressive attrition targets over the summer and didn’t fill vacant positions in its corporate logistics and advertising operations, according to people familiar with the matter.
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