Quick Read
- Amazon laid off 14,000 corporate employees, about 4% of its white-collar workforce.
- CEO Andy Jassy said the cuts were driven by a need for cultural agility, not cost-cutting or AI.
- Rapid growth led to more management layers, slowing decision-making.
- Amazon’s earnings remain strong, with profits up 38% in Q3.
- Affected employees are offered 90 days to find new internal roles or receive severance.
Why Amazon’s Recent Layoffs Weren’t About AI or Finances
For thousands of Amazon employees, the news arrived like a thunderclap: 14,000 corporate jobs—roughly 4% of the company’s global white-collar workforce—were cut in one of the largest layoffs in Amazon’s history. But unlike the usual narratives that swirl around Silicon Valley job reductions, this time, the explanation wasn’t about artificial intelligence, automation, or cost-cutting. Instead, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pointed to something less tangible but no less powerful: company culture.
On Amazon’s quarterly earnings call, Jassy addressed the elephant in the room. “The announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven, not right now at least,” he said. “It really—it’s culture.” (Entrepreneur)
According to Jassy, the company’s dizzying growth over the past several years left Amazon with “a lot more layers” of management and bureaucracy, inhibiting decision-making and slowing innovation. “Sometimes, without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people who are doing the actual work,” he explained. As a result, Amazon’s leadership team is now committed to operating more like “the world’s largest startup”—a mantra that’s echoed across recent internal communications.
A Start-Up Mentality at Scale: The Push for Agility
Amazon’s corporate headcount nearly doubled over six years, surging from 798,000 global employees in 2019 to about 1.5 million by mid-2025 (Axios). With such rapid expansion, the company inevitably accumulated layers of middle management and sprawling organizational structures. Jassy’s solution? Reduce bureaucracy and foster a more agile, accountable environment—one where employees feel direct ownership over their work and decisions move faster.
This philosophy isn’t unique to Amazon. Industry giants like Google and Microsoft have also trimmed management layers and cut thousands of jobs this year, aiming for similar cultural resets. In April, Google laid off hundreds from its Chrome and Pixel divisions, and Microsoft announced layoffs totaling 15,000 across several months (PCMag).
Beth Galetti, Amazon’s head of HR, reinforced this message in a company-wide memo, emphasizing the importance of “the right structure to drive that level of speed and ownership.” She acknowledged the need for a leaner organization, saying, “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
But Galetti also nodded to the transformative power of AI, calling it “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet.” The company, she wrote, must stay ahead in this fast-moving era, but the layoffs themselves were not primarily about automating jobs away.
Layoffs Amid Growth: A Contradiction?
Amazon’s third quarter earnings painted a picture of prosperity: sales topped $180 billion, with profits growing 38% to $21.2 billion. The company’s stock surged more than 11% following the announcement. Usually, such large-scale layoffs are associated with financial distress, not periods of record profits.
This paradox has not gone unnoticed by employees and industry observers. On social media, laid-off Amazon workers shared stories of commitment and loss. “After years of pouring my heart into this company and its people, it’s surreal to say that this chapter is now closed,” wrote a senior recruiter from Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios on LinkedIn (PCMag).
Jassy’s message, however, remains consistent: the cuts are about recalibrating Amazon’s corporate DNA, not responding to a crisis. The company wants to “invent and move quickly,” stripping away anything that slows it down—even if that means letting go of thousands who helped build its current scale.
The Bigger Picture: Tech Layoffs and the Role of AI
For many, the specter of AI-driven job loss looms large. But as the latest layoff wave demonstrates, the reality is more nuanced. According to a recent report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI did not rank among the top three causes for layoffs in 2025. Federal government cuts, market conditions, and business closures were bigger drivers (Axios).
Still, Jassy has warned that AI will eventually reshape Amazon’s workforce, especially as the company rolls out more advanced automation in areas like customer service and product content. Amazon has already integrated AI into its customer service chatbots and product page creation, and the company expects its corporate workforce to shrink further as automation capabilities expand.
Yet, even as AI transforms roles, the recent layoffs were not a direct result of those changes. Instead, they reflect a broader correction across the tech sector, which saw explosive hiring during the pandemic and is now grappling with the consequences—slower growth, more competition, and the need for organizational flexibility.
“I’m very skeptical of extracting signal from headline layoff notices,” said Ernie Tedeschi, former chief economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in an interview with Axios. In the massive U.S. labor market, layoffs are a constant churn, and the reasons are seldom straightforward.
What’s Next for Amazon’s Workforce?
For affected employees, Amazon is offering a transition period: most will have 90 days to look for new internal roles, with severance pay, outplacement services, and health benefits available for those unable to stay. The company’s communication, while direct, highlights the tension between efficiency and empathy—how does a global giant foster agility without sacrificing the human connection that underpins its culture?
Amazon isn’t alone in facing this question. As AI becomes more prevalent, and as companies strive to adapt to rapidly shifting markets, the challenge of balancing technological progress with organizational integrity will only grow. For now, Jassy’s bet is on culture—a bet that may redefine not just Amazon, but the tech industry’s approach to workforce management.
Amazon’s latest layoffs offer a window into the evolving priorities of tech giants: agility and cultural fit now rival cost-cutting and automation as drivers of restructuring. The company’s willingness to shed thousands of roles during record profits signals a broader shift in how leadership views organizational health, but it also raises difficult questions about the human cost of chasing efficiency and speed.