Two packages from Amazon.

By Chris Spiker From Daily Voice

About 14,000 Amazon employees will be laid off in what could reportedly be the largest corporate job cuts in the online retail giant's history.

Amazon confirmed the layoffs in a companywide message on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The retailer cited restructuring efforts and an increased focus on artificial intelligence tools as reasons behind the cuts.

Managers began notifying affected employees on October 28, with most workers given 90 days to apply for new roles within Amazon.

"The reductions we're sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we're investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers' current and future needs," wrote Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology.

The job cuts will represent at least 4% of Amazon's roughly 350,000 corporate employees, and are expected to be the largest corporate job cuts in the company's history, CNBC reported. More than 30,000 workers could ultimately be affected, sources told Reuters.

Galetti said Amazon is aiming to operate "like the world's largest startup."

"What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly," she wrote. "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the internet, and it's enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We're convicted 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."

Businesses across industries like tech, banking, and retail are pointing to the rise of generative AI as a reason to slash jobs and costs. Executives say new automation tools allow them to grow revenue with smaller staffs.

CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded billionaire founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, has spent several years reducing management layers and closing unprofitable divisions. Amazon previously laid off 27,000 workers in 2022 and 2023 as part of a broader cost-cutting effort following a hiring surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, Jassy said more job cuts are likely as the company increases its use of artificial intelligence tools to automate repetitive and routine tasks. The New York Times uncovered internal Amazon documents that robotics and AI systems could help the company avoid hiring more than 600,000 additional US workers.

A spokesperson said the documents obtained by The Times didn't represent the company's strategies. According to the projections, Amazon expects robotics to replace hundreds of thousands of jobs by 2027, saving about 30 cents per item processed.

Amazon recently unveiled a robotic arm system called Blue Jay that picks up and organizes items in one location, replacing three separate workstations. The company also revealed an AI model called Project Eluna, which will help managers predict bottlenecks and improve delivery speed during its pilot program at a Tennessee fulfillment center over the 2025 holiday season.

Amazon, which has about 1.55 million global employees, will report its third-quarter earnings on Thursday, Oct. 30.