New Delhi: US e-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly preparing to announce the second phase of its plan to cut 30,000 jobs next week, driven by efficiency gains from artificial intelligence implementation. According to sources cited by Reuters, the upcoming layoffs will target white-collar roles across key divisions including Amazon Web Services (AWS), the People Experience and Technology unit (human resources), Prime Video, and retail operations.
This follows the first round in October last year, when Amazon eliminated 14,000 white-collar positions, roughly half of the total target. The magnitude of the next cuts is expected to match that scale, completing the company's ambitious workforce reduction strategy. Amazon has yet to comment on the report.
The October layoffs were initially linked to AI advancements in an internal company letter, which described the technology as "the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet," enabling unprecedented innovation speed. However, during the third-quarter earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy clarified that the reductions were neither "financially driven" nor "AI-driven," but rather a cultural correction to address excessive bureaucracy. "You end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers," he explained.
Jassy had earlier signaled in 2025 that Amazon's corporate workforce would shrink over time due to AI efficiencies. While the 30,000-job cut would mark the largest layoff in the company's three-decade history—surpassing the 27,000 positions eliminated in 2022—it represents just a fraction of Amazon's total headcount of 1.58 million employees.
Affected workers will reportedly remain on payroll for 90 days, during which they can apply for internal openings or seek external opportunities. The news comes amid broader tech industry discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where leading executives noted that AI will reshape rather than replace human jobs by automating routine tasks.