Global e-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon has recently announced another major layoff plan. According to Amazon's official blog post and internal memo, in order to maintain its leading position in the increasingly intense AI arms race, the company has announced that it will cut 16,000 employees. Notably, this is the second round of large-scale staff reductions by Amazon within just three months. Previously, the company had laid off 14,000 employees in October last year, and the two rounds of layoffs have accounted for approximately 9% of the company's total workforce.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy clearly stated that the core goal of this transformation is to reshape the company into "the world's largest startup." By reducing management levels, increasing accountability, and eliminating bureaucracy, Amazon aims to significantly accelerate decision-making to respond to direct challenges from competitors such as Microsoft and Google in the fields of AI computing power and large models.

Although the human resources department emphasized that large-scale layoffs will not become a regular practice, the impact of AI on traditional jobs is unavoidable. Jassy bluntly pointed out that with the widespread application of generative AI and AI agents, many existing white-collar jobs will be replaced, and the company's future human resource needs will continue to decrease. This move is seen as a core strategy of Amazon to achieve automation and efficiency improvements through AI.

In addition, Amazon is simultaneously retreating from some businesses, announcing the closure of physical grocery businesses such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, and focusing more on the Whole Foods brand. This move aims to concentrate resources and fully commit to the pace of competition in the AI era.

Key Points:

  • 📉 Amazon has launched two rounds of layoffs within three months, affecting about 30,000 people, accounting for 9% of the company's total workforce.

  • 🤖 The layoffs aim to restructure the organization to adapt to AI competition, with senior executives openly stating that the application of generative AI is causing many white-collar jobs to be replaced.

  • 🏗️ The company is transitioning toward a "large startup" strategy, while also scaling back physical retail businesses like Amazon Fresh to focus resources on addressing AI challenges.