Amazon layoffs: CEO Andy Jassy says 14,000 job cuts aimed at reforming company culture, not driven by AI

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has defended the company’s latest round of layoffs — about 14,000 corporate roles — saying the move isn’t driven by artificial intelligence or cost-cutting, but by the need to reset Amazon’s culture and restore its startup spirit.

In an unusually candid statement during Amazon’s quarterly earnings call, Jassy said the decision was “not financially driven, and it’s not even really AI-driven… it’s culture.” The cuts, which could eventually reach 30,000 jobs, mark one of the biggest corporate downsizing efforts in Amazon’s history.

“We’ve gotten too big, too slow”

Jassy explained that Amazon’s rapid expansion during the pandemic had created unnecessary layers of management, slowing decision-making and diluting accountability. Between 2017 and 2022, the company’s corporate headcount nearly tripled.

“When that happens,” he said, “you can weaken the ownership of the people actually doing the work.” He added that the layoffs are meant to restore agility and “ownership” — ideas rooted in Amazon’s “two-way door” philosophy from Jeff Bezos’s era, which encouraged employees to act fast and take reversible risks.

Jassy described the move as part of a broader effort to “operate like the world’s largest startup” — a phrase he has repeated frequently since taking over from Bezos in 2021.

A cultural reset, not an AI reshuffle

Speculation that artificial intelligence was replacing jobs intensified after Jassy acknowledged earlier this year that AI could eventually make the company “leaner.” However, he insisted the current layoffs are unrelated to automation, calling them instead a “cultural reboot.”

“This isn’t about AI taking over people’s jobs,” Jassy said. “It’s about making Amazon faster and flatter — rediscovering the scrappiness that built this company.” The CEO also sought to calm investor concerns, stressing that the decision wasn’t a reaction to market pressures. “The announcement was not financially driven,” he repeated. “We’re acting from strength, not weakness.”

Back to basics — with modern challenges

Since assuming leadership, Jassy has focused on streamlining Amazon’s internal systems and reshaping its management layers. Despite previous restructuring rounds — including 27,000 corporate layoffs in 2023 — he reportedly believes the company remains “too complex” and “unwieldy.”

His goal now, he says, is to rebuild a flatter organisation that moves at startup speed — even as Amazon continues heavy investment in AI, logistics, and cloud infrastructure. “Given the transformation happening across the business world,” Jassy told analysts, “it’s more important than ever to be lean, flat, and fast-moving. That’s what we’re going to do.”

A tough transition

For thousands of employees losing their jobs, the reset is painful. But for Jassy, the layoffs represent a long-term bet: that the future of Amazon lies not just in machines and automation, but in rekindling the urgency and ownership that once defined it.