Amazon CEO Says Massive Corporate Layoffs Were About Agility - Not AI or Cost-Cutting

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company's latest big round of layoffs -- about 14,000 corporate jobs -- wasn't triggered by financial strain or AI replacing workers, but rather a push to stay nimble. From a report: Speaking with analysts on Amazon's quarterly earnings call Thursday, Jassy said the decision stemmed from a belief that the company had grown too big and too layered. "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. "Really, it's culture."

Jassy's comments are his first public explanation of the layoffs, which reportedly could ultimately total as many as 30,000 people -- and would be the largest workforce reduction in Amazon's history. The news this week prompted speculation that the cuts were tied to automation or AI-related restructuring. Earlier this year, Jassy wrote in a memo to employees that he expected Amazon's total corporate workforce to shrink over time due to efficiency gains from AI. But his comments Thursday framed the layoffs as a cultural reset aimed at keeping the company fast-moving amid what he called "the technology transformation happening right now."

Gymnasts

[registrations_suck]

seems like Amazon should be hiring a bunch of gymnasts.

Re:

[echo123]

seems like Amazon should be hiring a bunch of gymnasts.

How many gymnasts? Choose a number.

Re:

[registrations_suck]

How many are available? I'd like 12 just for myself.

Re:Gymnasts [are human, too]

[shanen]

Mod FP branch funnier...

But I just had an over 600 word interaction with a third generative AI engine. All three of them have failed to solve the same computer-related problem. They are not stupid. They are not not stupid. They are not. Not human, not gymnasts, just not. Period.

It's a different way of thinking and I am trying to minimize my exposures because I think it may be dangerous. And contagious.

But I'd still like to see a website that rates and compares AI on such dimensions as "quality of apology",

In other words-AI

[macbass]

His own words contradict themselves. "But his comments Thursday framed the layoffs as a cultural reset aimed at keeping the company fast-moving amid what he called 'the technology transformation happening right now.'" AI by any other name would still be AI, if I may paraphrase Shakespeare.

Re:

[Targon]

There is a difference between AI being the real reason, and seeing a need to restructure due to organizational bloat. If you do an internal reorganization because there are too many layers of management to get things done quickly, you can have layoffs that have nothing to do with AI.

Remember, Amazon had that outage, and when management can't FIND who to contact to fix the problem because of the organization being bloated, that's when heads tend to roll.

Re:

[DarkOx]

Right but all this ignores the mid-level management if it is 'good' are at the most valuable during times of transition and in the event of calamity

Effective mid-level management would have been able enhanced the response to an outage. They would have KNOW exactly which engineers were key, and been able to quickly name them and get them excused/pulled off of whatever else they were doing, brought back from PTO, etc to get the problem solved.

Same thing when it comes to transition, good middle management kno

Re:

[PackMan97]

Not really. This is an easy way to get rid of:
troublemakers (those that stir the pot with their activism whether thats technical, political, social or whatever)
low performers (but not quite low enough to fire outright)
misfits (talented folks who just don't quite fit the position)

Basically, you can get rid of folks without having to go through an unpleasantness of a PIP or other disciplinary actions.

Re:

[PackMan97]

yes.... I'm thinking of the people who are the most awesome square peg, but the role calls for a someone able to fit into a round hole...the person is so awesome you want them to fit into the round hole and the manager goes ahead and hires this individual because of how awesome they are at being a square peg thinking that they'll eventually fit into the round hole if they push hard enough. Life sometimes works that way, but not always.

This is more about Elon and Twitter than AI

[XopherMV]

Elon finished the acquisition of Twitter about a month before ChatGPT was released. Elon immediately fired about half the company. This absolutely shocked the industry and led to countless predictions of imminent technical and business failure.

But what actually happened? Twitter struggled for a month or two. Then it was fine. Most importantly to tech executives: the company continued running reasonably well with roughly half the number of employees.

That blew the minds of C-level tech executives.

Re:

[larryjoe]

This idea of blindly cutting people works fine at companies like Twitter that are static for technology. The software has been written and doesn't need to change much. This doesn't work for most companies that have competition and where the technology is constantly changing.

Re:

[noshellswill]

So all companies making nickle-alloy wrenches, redwood-handled screwdrivers , mm-precise levels, Manganese-based chainsaws and  tungsten-carbide  files can fire everybody ... no matter the extreme hand-made craftsmanship in many of those tools. Unless the companies decide to connect their specific tool into the cloud internet, and show ads  on screens wrapped around the handles ...

Re:

[Zuck Enabler]

lol this is all fiction

Re:

[XopherMV]

Bullshit. We lived through it, dumbass.

Re:

[Zuck Enabler]

yeah i didn't read the second half admittedly. but the first part, only a fucking idiot believes he's done anything constructive at twitter.

Re:

[XopherMV]

Jassy verified the layoffs had nothing to do with AI.

https://www.axios.com/2025/10/... [axios.com]

Re:

[Zuck Enabler]

I bet you watch presidential debates and talk to outside salesman too

Re: In other words-fear

[spinitch]

The remaining employees are expected to work harder. Fear factor might work for some but others will cooperate less if worried their colleagues will get credit over them. Seems like a spin on Jack Welch methods.

Re: In other words-AI

[zmollusc]

He is a CEO. His words are unconnected to reality. Like sales, marketing, HR etc.

PHB-to-English Translation:

[Tablizer]

"Sorry, we used the wrong buzzwords & PHBese, making shareholders nervous. Therefore, we are issuing new buzzwords & PHBese to describe our shrinkage without directly admitting we are shrinking."

He's annoyingly right

[Murdoch5]

There is a serious problem with having mangers, on mangers, on team leads, that just break any ability to communicate at scale. If anyone remembers that phone game, where several people stand in a circle, and you tell the person next you X, and they tell the next person X and so on, until it come back to you. It's the same issue, and well, I think his double speaking nonsense is annoying, and I don't believe him, there are some benefits to cutting the abstraction layers.

How many times can you recall whe

Re:He's annoyingly right

[sjames]

Alas, many (or most) of the people laid off weren't managers. Interestingly, many of the people laid off supported AWS in some way. One wonders if the loss of experienced people in AWS has something to do with the recent outage?

Personally, I don't want to be anywhere near AWS when they are finally schooled by reality that AI is actually much more expensive and less effective than a few good people.

Dr. Evil voice --- Riiiiiiiiggght.

[Talon0ne]

Seriously though... There's going to be 2 types of engineers in the not-so-distant future. Those who embraced AI and integrated it into their workflows, and those looking for a job.

Mini-Me Thinking.

[geekmux]

Seriously though... There's going to be 2 types of engineers in the not-so-distant future. Those who embraced AI and integrated it into their workflows, and those looking for a job.

I envision in the not-so-distant future the AI whisperers providing succinct enough instruction to the A(G)I hivemind will be the valued resource. At that point the job will require more a degree in whispering than engineering.

AI won't need to waste precious money-making time on memorizing math equations beating that old-fashioned mentality into a handheld calculator in hopes of passing the math final and the American History final in the same day. The 2nd year Engineering student snorting lines of Ritali

Re:

[noshellswill]

Why does this rational post get a zero(0)-KARMA ? Are /. mods so ignorant as to have never heard of CASANDRA ... or PANDORA ?? Talk about Karma like it isn't a "real" thing outside of a marketing tool. Groups on /. are using KARMA-rating to market their own ( usually leftist/Dadaist ) meta-politics, in ignorance of the "karma" hanging over their actions.

Re:

[Zuck Enabler]

does the worm in your head have a name?

Administration bloat is real.

[Fly Swatter]

People see it as layoffs, but it is really positions that never needed to exist. What happens is that administration type departments start hiring more and more people, eventually new hires are needed just to administer the administration department. This keeps happening until someone with the power realizes it's just an unending addition of useless bloat.

All that bloat just makes it harder to steer the ship while dragging down resource availability. But sure blame the greedy shareholders and not managem

So here's what it's actually about

[rsilvergun]

Large companies like to go on hiring sprees so that competitors can't get employees. As the economy crashes they don't need to worry about startups and the economy is absolutely collapsing because we put a senile rapist and a bunch of theocratic lunatics and Fox News hosts in charge of the country.

So these companies are happy to fire all their people right now content and safe in the knowledge that they won't go off and build competitors that might potentially have to be bought out.

Notice I didn't talk about competition? Companies don't compete anymore. Every single company does the Microsoft embrace extend extinguish and a complete lack of antitrust law enforcement means they can do it with impunity.

We have been making trades with our voting decisions for years now and we're about to pay the piper on that.

Not what the people being laid off say

[Twipped]

I trust the people who lost their jobs more than I trust the CEO. This layoff included a shutdown of Amazon Games. Artists, developers and managers alike. I'm also seeing AWS staff who were cut, infrastructure engineers. Either the CEO is lying, or he doesn't know what was actually cut.

Agility. Sure.

[whitroth]

Nothing to do with massive overspending on AI, to where it's affecting the bottom line.

Re:

[larryjoe]

Now ask the visionary CEO to define "agility" and get out the popcorn. Also ask him if cutting 60k people will result in even greater agility.

Re:

[whitroth]

I gather there's a "game" where you fall down a mountain. I suggest we volunteer Bezos for a live action version of that, using a broken window in a skyscraper as the top...

*sniff sniff*

[drew_92123]

I smell bullshit.

Zoho Eased Costs on the East Coast

[kurt_cordial]

We shipped with Zoho, and all four of us like Slashdot. Red did seem agile, but green was also agile. The only 20,000 guys who didn't use Zoho were the ones Let Go Places.

How many

[gabrieltss]

How many executives did they get rid of? How about upper Management?

So, instead of a massive super tanker

[Tony Isaac]

A super tanker need a long, long, long distance to execute a turn. With this new "agility" they should be more like an aircraft carrier, and only need a long, long distance to execute a turn.