Amazon is cutting roughly 14,000 corporate positions in a sweeping reorganisation that CEO Andy Jassy framed as a cultural reset aimed at speed and ownership rather than a cost cutting exercise or an AI driven displacement of workers.
The announcement follows months of internal work to flatten management structures and trim bureaucracy across businesses.
Amazon’s senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, told employees the company is “reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources” to its biggest bets.
Affected employees will generally have about 90 days to pursue internal roles before severance packages are offered, with Amazon pledging transition supports that include pay, outplacement services and health insurance benefits.
In its third quarter results, Amazon recorded an estimated US$1.8 billion in severance costs related primarily to planned role eliminations.
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The company reported $180.2 billion in net sales for the quarter, up 13% year over year, and said operating income would have been higher without special charges that included the severance accrual and a legal settlement.
Jassy said the decision was not financially driven and not even really AI driven, emphasising the need to stay nimble as the business scales.
The message tracks with Amazon’s recent internal push to operate like the world’s largest startup, a mantra that has included reducing managerial layers that can slow decisions and diffuse ownership.
The company has been preparing investors for a smaller corporate workforce even as it invests heavily in generative AI and cloud infrastructure.
Galetti noted that AI is transforming how companies operate, a backdrop she said requires Amazon to be organized more leanly with clearer ownership to move quickly.
This is Amazon’s largest staff move since it cut about 27,000 positions across 2022 and 2023.
In recent days, outside reporting suggested the company had weighed deeper reductions, with up to 30,000 corporate roles under consideration, before settling on the current plan.
Amazon employs more than $1.5 million people worldwide, including roughly 350,000 in corporate roles, magnifying the impact of any change in organisational design.
