Amazon to Cut 30,000 Office Jobs Amid AI-Driven Restructuring — Reports

Amazon is set to lay off tens of thousands of office workers as part of a major cost-cutting drive linked to its growing investment in artificial intelligence (AI), according to multiple U.S. media reports.

The tech and e-commerce giant is expected to eliminate about 30,000 corporate roles, roughly 10 percent of its 350,000 office workforce, in a restructuring move slated to begin on Tuesday, reports from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other outlets revealed.

The layoffs reportedly will not affect Amazon’s vast distribution and warehouse operations, which make up the bulk of its 1.5 million global employees.

Seattle-based Amazon has not officially commented on the reports, and did not respond to AFP’s request for clarification.

Despite the news, Amazon shares closed slightly higher on Monday as investors welcomed potential efficiency gains tied to the company’s AI-focused strategy.

AI Investment Behind Amazon’s Cost-Cutting Drive

Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has repeatedly highlighted artificial intelligence as a key growth driver for the company, noting its potential to enhance productivity, customer service, and operational efficiency.

“Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out,” Jassy said during Amazon’s most recent quarterly earnings call.

Amazon is expected to release its next earnings report on Thursday, amid growing investor scrutiny over whether its massive AI spending will translate into stronger revenue and profitability.

“AWS will be under pressure to both show revenue acceleration and operating margin improvement in light of its massive AI investments,” said Sky Canaves, Principal Analyst at Emarketer, referring to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company’s cloud computing arm.

AWS Faces Questions After Major Outage

The upcoming earnings announcement is also expected to address the recent AWS outage that disrupted several major online platforms and services worldwide.

The incident knocked out access to streaming and communication services — including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Fortnite, Airbnb, Snapchat, and Duolingo — for several hours last week.

Messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp also experienced interruptions across parts of Europe, while some banks, including Lloyds, confirmed temporary outages linked to the cloud service failure.

Amazon later attributed the disruption to a Domain Name System (DNS) issue, which temporarily crippled data routing across its network.

AWS remains the global leader in cloud computing, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, powering much of the world’s online infrastructure — from entertainment platforms to financial systems and government services.

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