Amazon's 14,000 Job Cuts Driven by Culture, Not Costs or AI, CEO Andy Jassy Says

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has revealed that the company’s recent decision to cut 14,000 jobs was not driven by cost concerns or the adoption of artificial intelligence, but by a need to realign the company’s culture. Speaking during Amazon’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Jassy emphasized that the layoffs—announced just days earlier—were fundamentally about improving performance, accountability, and speed. “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,” Jassy said. “It really — it's culture.” This marks a shift from earlier narratives that linked major tech layoffs to automation or AI replacing human roles. Instead, Jassy framed the cuts as part of a broader internal transformation aimed at raising performance standards, eliminating bureaucracy, and reinforcing ownership among employees. The move follows a blog post from Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, who explained that despite strong financial results, the company is reducing headcount to adapt to the rapid pace of change brought on by AI. “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—both in existing market segments and altogether new ones,” she wrote. The 14,000 job reductions represent Amazon’s largest workforce cut since it eliminated 27,000 positions in late 2022. Jassy noted that years of rapid expansion had added layers of management and processes that were slowing decision-making. “Sometimes, without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work,” he said. “And it can lead to slowing you down.” He stressed that in the face of AI’s accelerating impact, it’s more important than ever for Amazon to operate with agility and focus. The company is aiming to flatten its organizational structure to empower teams to move faster and take greater responsibility. Amazon’s restructuring comes amid a wider trend across Big Tech. Google and Microsoft have also been reducing managerial layers and streamlining operations in an effort to cut corporate bloat and improve responsiveness. The company disclosed that the recent layoffs will result in approximately $1.8 billion in severance costs. While the financial impact is significant, Amazon’s leadership views the move as a necessary step in its long-term strategy to remain competitive in a fast-evolving technological landscape. As the AI revolution reshapes industries, Amazon’s leadership sees cultural transformation—not cost-cutting or automation—as the core driver behind its latest workforce adjustments.