Amazon To Cut 30,000 Jobs: What Does This Say About the Future of Tech Work?

Amazon is preparing a second large round of corporate job losses as it works toward 30,000 roles going down. The total equals about 10% of its corporate workforce, making this the biggest reduction the company has carried out.

The first wave removed about 14,000 jobs. At that time, senior figures linked the decision to advances in AI. Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy later told an earnings call the layoffs were “not really financially driven and it’s not even really AI-driven.”

Reports say thousands more roles will go down in the coming days. An Amazon spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

For staff, the scale has brought fresh anxiety. Many workers already lived through one round and now face another, with few details shared internally about which teams face change.

How Did Staff Learn About Project Dawn?

Recent news broke that a calendar invitation landed in inboxes on Tuesday. The invite mentioned “Project Dawn,” described as an initiative to improve efficiency at Amazon, according to a copy seen by Business Insider.

The subject line read “Send Project Dawn email.” The note was written by Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of AWS Solutions, though it appears an assistant sent it. The event was set for 5 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday and was cancelled shortly after.

The message said, “This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers.” It added that notifications to affected colleagues in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had finished.

Aubrey also wrote, “Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.”

Confusion spread across an internal Slack group with more than 36,000 members. One employee asked, “Am I impacted or sent by mistake to all?” Another wrote, “Well, if you needed solid proof that tomorrow is legit, the project dawn email is it.”

What Does This Say About AI And Work?

Peter Fedoročko, CTO of GoodData, sees a broader lesson in the decision. He said, “Amazon’s decision to cut another 14,000 corporate roles is a signal that even the big names are rethinking the realities of automation and post-pandemic scaling.”

He added, “Many companies overexpanded during a period of cheap capital and rapid digital acceleration. Now, they’re confronting what happens when AI, automation, and market efficiency collide with overhiring.”

Fedoročko said the real issue sits in how organisations use technology. “AI isn’t eliminating the human factor; it’s redefining it,” he said. “The future belongs to organisations that treat AI not as a headcount reduction tool, but as a tool to benefit the workforce.”

At Amazon, staff speculation continues. One worker told Business Insider, “People are speculating you’re safe if invited,” showing how uncertainty now shapes daily working life.

Our Experts:

• Andy Haley, CEO, Sullivan & Stanley
• Liz Sebag-Montefiore, CEO, 10Eighty
• Anshuman Singh, CEO, HGS UK
• Advita Patel, Communications and Professional Confidence Strategist
• Oliver Shaw, CEO, Orgvue
• Natalie Spiro, CEO and Founder, Blue Fire Leadership
• John Boyd, The Boyd Company, Inc.
• Edward Hones, Owner, Hones Law
• Scott Dylan, Founder, NexaTech Ventures

Andy Haley, CEO, Sullivan & Stanley

“The latest job cuts at Amazon say more about how the organisation is thinking about people than about AI itself. Staying competitive is about constant evolution, not one-off transformation and not simply deploying the latest technology. The businesses that will thrive – what we call intelligent enterprises – understand where human judgement and expertise genuinely create value yet we consistently see innovation lost when organisations over-focus on technology and under-invest in people.

Amazon therefore may be falling into the familiar trap that starts with “where do we need AI?” instead of the harder question: “where do we need people?” When that clarity is missing, job cuts become a proxy for progress rather than evidence of genuine transformation. A premium tech stack won’t fix a business that hasn’t aligned its culture, skills and structure around the outcomes it cares about. AI shouldn’t be the “sat nav” for the organisation. Leaders still need a strong sense of direction and a clear view of which human skills really matter. Otherwise you end up stripping out roles without fixing the underlying structure that made them feel expendable in the first place.”

Liz Sebag-Montefiore, CEO, 10Eighty

“Amazon’s decision to cut around 30,000 roles points to a company that is still recalibrating after a period of very rapid expansion. Like many large tech firms, it built additional layers of corporate and programme roles during the growth years and is now streamlining its structure. This is less about a collapse in the business and more about organisational redesign – reducing duplication, simplifying management layers and refocusing on core priorities.

“I don’t think this signals an AI bubble bursting. If anything, it reflects a shift in where value is created. AI is likely to reduce the need for some coordination, reporting and operational roles, while increasing demand for technical, product and data capability. What we are seeing is not a reduction in technology ambition, but fewer people required to run complex internal processes.

“When companies say these decisions are not driven by AI or by finances, that usually indicates structural change rather than crisis. It suggests a move towards sharpening focus – prioritising growth areas, stopping lower-return initiatives and designing a leaner operating model. This marks a shift from scale-at-all-costs to productivity and accountability.

“For big tech more broadly, this signals a move away from mass hiring towards more selective recruitment. The roles that will grow are those that directly create value – engineering, product, data and roles that connect technology to commercial and customer outcomes. Corporate support roles are unlikely to disappear, but they will be fewer in number and more tightly aligned to strategy. This is not the end of tech jobs, but it is the end of unfocused growth.”

Anshuman Singh, CEO, HGS UK

“AI is often likened to electricity in the scale of its transformative potential. The commercial adoption of electricity in the early 20th century redefined entire industries and economies by creating new productivity possibilities and rendering some jobs obsolete. Today, AI is following a similar path – rapidly changing how work is done, especially in entry-level roles, but on a much faster and more global scale.

“White-collar entry points – especially in Big Tech – are the most exposed. Here, AI now performs the very ‘grunt work’ that once enabled young staff to build the foundation of a career, from report generation to research support and basic problem solving. In tech, entire classes of back-office and research roles are shrinking; firms are explicitly citing AI when cutting hundreds of graduate jobs.

“This presents a real risk to social mobility. The loss of entry-level roles threatens to break the ‘ladder’ that lifts individuals from novice to expert, jeopardising mid-career talent pipelines for the tech industry. If firms continue to eliminate or outsource entry-level positions en masse, the sector could face a severe leadership deficit decades down the line.

“Nevertheless, even as opportunities shrink at the entry-level, new doors may open. AI may democratise access to high-skilled jobs, allowing more rapid upskilling via digital apprenticeships, and internationalise recruitment as companies deploy more work overseas. The B-schools and universities of the future are already reshaping curricula to prepare graduates for an ‘AI-plus-human’ career reality.

“At the same time, business and policy is faced with the challenge of redesigning entry-level work so that young professionals, regardless of background, can still learn the tacit skills and judgement needed to move up and eventually lead. Big Tech firms restructuring for cost-savings must weigh the short-term gains of automation against the longer-term need for a robust, skilled leadership pipeline.”
 

Advita Patel, Communications and Professional Confidence Strategist

“The scale of Amazon’s job cuts points less to a sudden crisis and more to a structural recalibration that many large organisations are navigating right now. When companies grow at speed, layers form, roles blur, and internal complexity increases. Reductions at this level often signal a reset of how work gets done, not just how much work exists.

“While it’s tempting to frame this purely as an AI bubble bursting, I see this as more nuanced. AI hasn’t removed the need for people, but it has exposed where organisations need to really look at what resources they have and what they actually need. When leaders say cuts are not directly linked to AI or finances, it often points to the confidence to look at accountability, overall costs and organisational design rather than a single technology or budget issue.

“From an internal communications and employee experience perspective, moments like this test leadership credibility and confidence. How clearly change is explained, how respectfully people are treated, and how remaining teams are supported will shape trust far more than noisy headlines.

“Looking ahead, big tech jobs aren’t disappearing, but they are changing. From my perspective, in the future there will be a rise in roles that combine technical capability with judgement, communication, and confidence under pressure. As automation increases, the human skills of clarity, decision ownership, and trust-building become more valuable, not less.”

Oliver Shaw, CEO, Orgvue

“The problem may be “too many” managers – but it could also be misaligned roles and a lack of workforce clarity. Without clarity on how strategy connects to structure and the work people do, businesses can make emotional, wholesale cuts rather than targeted, evidence-based decisions about where value is really being created.

“Agile organisations cope with trade wars, AI adoption, and changing demographics by creating psychologically safe spaces where change is light touch and every organisational change is understood and intentional. That’s how you do it, speed and resilience.

Natalie Spiro, CEO and Founder, Blue Fire Leadership

“When mass layoffs occur, it’s often those who remain in the workforce who feel the effects most profoundly. Uncertainty can creep in and quietly undermine trust, focus, and collaboration if not actively addressed.

“In such a situation, communication must change from a transactional to a human approach, where employees need to feel a level of transparency and acknowledgment of the emotional toll of what’s happened, and understand how their role still fits into the picture. Organisations that invest in re-establishing connection and safety in the workplace after a workforce reduction are much more likely to recover and sustain their workforce’s morale and performance.”

John Boyd, The Boyd Company, Inc.

“From a site selection and corporate strategy perspective, Amazon’s job cuts ( both automation and robotics in fulfillment centers & AI at corp level) show a re-calibration after years of pandemic-era over-hiring and growing managerial layers. CEO Andy Jassy said so himself – emphasising that the reductions are about “culture” and streamlining bureaucracy.

“Amazon is also cutting corporate overhead so it can reinvest in Amazon Web Services and its AI data centers -(which require enormous amounts of capital ) as well as logistics automation and robotics (Amazon is investing billions in robotics – including backing Agility Robotics – maker of the humanoid robot Digit). . AWS remains Amazon’s profit engine, but it requires massive upfront capital, so trimming white-collar layers elsewhere helps strategically.

“Another marketplace factor here to cut costs and bloated corporate bueracracy – Amazon is facing new competition from ultra low-cost rivals like Temu, Shein, AliExpress, and TikTok Shop.”

Edward Hones, Owner, Hones Law

“I believe that AI is not the direct reason for Amazon to cut 30,000 jobs. It is essential to understand that integrating AI is a long-term strategy for increasing efficiency and does not materialise quickly. This is because any big change that you introduce in your organisation takes time and is not adapted to as quickly as one may expect. Since Amazon wants to use AI as a long-term efficiency tool, the full impact of it may take years. Simply implementing AI doesn’t immediately replace tens of thousands of jobs, as the system needs testing and training.

“Amazon has stated that the reasoning does not relate to either AI or finances, and this appears consistent with news reports. One key factor often cited is the overexpansion during the pandemic, when Amazon hired tens of thousands of employees to meet surging demand. As demand has normalised, some roles have become less critical, which requires workforce reductions. It is important to understand that while AI is often discussed in the media as a driver of efficiency, its integration is a long-term process and rarely leads to immediate, massive job cuts.”

Scott Dylan, Founder, NexaTech Ventures

What This Says About Amazon’s Internal Structure
“Amazon’s decision to cut 30,000 corporate roles tells us they’ve finally acknowledged what many suspected: the company built a bureaucratic empire during its explosive growth phase. When your corporate headcount triples in five years—which is what happened between 2017 and 2022—you don’t just add people, you add layers. And layers become barriers.

“Andy Jassy’s reference to “pre-meetings for the pre-meetings” isn’t just corporate speak. It’s a symptom of decision-making paralysis that afflicts any organisation when middle management becomes self-perpetuating. The fact they’re targeting a 15% increase in the individual contributor-to-manager ratio and mandating managers have at least eight direct reports shows just how top-heavy they’d become.

Is This Really About AI?
“Here’s where it gets interesting. Jassy insists this isn’t about AI or finances, and I’m inclined to believe him—at least partially. Yes, AI will eventually reshape how Amazon operates, but what we’re seeing now is a correction of structural bloat that would have been necessary regardless.

“The AI narrative is convenient cover for what’s really happening across tech. Companies overhired during the pandemic boom, built unnecessary hierarchies, and are now unwinding those decisions. Calling it “AI transformation” sounds better than admitting you built an inefficient organisation. It’s what some are calling “AI-washing”—using technological advancement as justification for traditional cost-cutting.

“That said, AI is changing the calculation. When you’re investing £74 billion into AI infrastructure like Amazon is, you need to free up resources somewhere. Cutting bureaucratic overhead whilst positioning for AI-driven productivity gains is actually sensible strategy—even if the two aren’t directly linked.

The Future of Big Tech Jobs
“This isn’t an AI apocalypse. It’s a structural reset. We’re watching the tech sector move from a growth-at-all-costs mentality to sustainable efficiency. The pandemic created a hiring bubble, and we’re simply returning to more rational organisational structures.

“What’s genuinely concerning isn’t the headline number—it’s what comes next. Amazon’s “Bureaucracy Mailbox” received over 1,500 employee reports of unnecessary processes, leading to hundreds of policy changes. That tells you this isn’t just about headcount. It’s about fundamentally rethinking how large organisations function.

“The real job displacement from AI will happen gradually, in ways that are harder to spot. Routine tasks automated here, workflows streamlined there. But the mass layoffs we’re seeing? Those are mostly about companies admitting they grew too fast and built inefficiently.

“For anyone watching the tech sector, the lesson is clear: scale doesn’t automatically create efficiency. Sometimes it creates exactly the opposite. Amazon is learning that lesson publicly, and they won’t be the last.”