The news: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said AI-driven efficiencies will reduce the company’s headcount.

“As we roll out more generative AI and agents …we will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a letter to employees. “In the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”

He added that Amazon has built—or is building—over 1,000 genAI products and that more are on the way.

Cards on the table: Jassy’s transparency about potential AI-driven layoffs follows similar disclosures from other CEOs. Not all of those announcements have gone over well or been successfully implemented.

• Duolingo faced considerable backlash from users after announcing it would phase out some human contract workers in favor of automation.
• Klarna backtracked on its push to replace customer service workers with AI after user experience quality declined.

Big Tech cuts: Amazon has already slashed its workforce in recent years—it’s cut about 27,000 employees since 2022, per The Verge.

Meta isn’t far behind with over 21,000 layoffs since 2022, and Microsoft has laid off at least 16,000 people since 2023. The latter is planning to lay off thousands more this year, per Bloomberg, especially in its sales departments.

Heavy reductions: The trend of reducing staff to make room for AI investments isn’t limited to Big Tech companies, either. Layoffs have outpaced hiring for the past three consecutive quarters in the US, per Janco Associates, and more than 62,000 tech jobs have disappeared in 2025, per Layoffs.fyi.

• In May, Business Insider laid off 21% of its workforce and highlighted a “huge opportunity” for early AI adopters. Business Insider and EMARKETER are both owned by Axel Springer.
• Workday and Salesforce each cut over a thousand workers in February while deploying AI. Salesforce said it plans to hire new, AI-skilled employees.

Our take: Companies that pursue an AI-first mission by laying off employees risk lower team morale, a resistance to AI adoption among workers, and damaged consumer trust. Still, Amazon’s scale, deep pockets, and cloud infrastructure dominance may insulate it from backlash or major fallout.

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