Amazon announced on Wednesday that it plans to cut thousands of jobs, framing the move as a way to reduce bureaucracy.
The tech giant is set to slash 16,000 jobs. The development comes after similar workforce cuts of 14,000 employees last October were attributed partially to developments in artificial intelligence, as the company is expected to focus on efforts to replace over half a million jobs with robots.
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience, said the latest layoffs were aimed at “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” in a memo to employees.
“Every team will continue to evaluate the ownership, speed, and capacity to invent for customers, and make adjustments as appropriate. That’s never been more important than it is today in a world that’s changing faster than ever,” she wrote.
The layoffs come as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has spurred efforts to cut costs and narrow operations in order to expand investments in AI and data centers, with Amazon allocating around $80 billion toward AI development last year. Earlier this week, the company shuttered its Fresh and Go grocery chains, saying it was part of an effort to prioritize investments.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a memo to employees last June. “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.”
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Employees should learn how to use AI tools and experiment and figure out “how to get more done with scrappier teams,” Jassy added.
When thousands of workers were laid off last October, Galetti cited AI as being the “most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet.”
