Amazon layoffs: Tech giant to cut 16,000 jobs in second round in next three months amid AI expansion plans

Amazon layoffs: US-based technology and e-commerce giant, Amazon, is set to cut 16,000 jobs worldwide in the next three-month period amid the company's restructuring and artificial intelligence (AI) expansion plans, according the an official announcement on Wednesday, 28 January 2026.

“The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted,” said Amazon in a blog post.

The company was reportedly planning a second round of layoffs as part of its broader strategy of cutting nearly 30,000 corporate roles within the organisation.

Amazon's layoffs are expected to affect workers in Amazon Web Services, Retail, Prime Video and Human Resources (HR) departments, according to the earlier media report.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm – where we announce broad reductions every few months. That's not our plan,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said.

In October 2025, Amazon cut 14,000 white-collar jobs as the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andy Jassy highlighted the need for the tech giant to reduce its excessive bureaucracy via trimming operational-level roles and reducing the number of managers in the firm.

News around Amazon's global layoffs comes at a time when the Big Tech firm continues to have a robust number of job listings in India.

Data collated by Mint research found that while Amazon had a total of 1,949 jobs across all verticals open as of 30 September 2025, the total open numbers saw a 4% decline to 1,869 jobs as of 31 December.

As of 28 January, Amazon has 1,846 jobs open in India, with about 120 new roles added across artificial intelligence, e-commerce, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Pay and other verticals over the past seven days itself.

Mint could not immediately ascertain if the company's global layoffs will affect current jobs and pace of hiring at Amazon India as well.

The mistaken notice

A recent CNBC report suggested that Amazon mistakenly sent a notice via an internal email to some of its employees acknowledging “organisational changes” at the company.

“Changes like this are hard on everyone,” Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS, wrote in the email, cited in the news portal's report. “These decisions are difficult and are made thoughtfully as we position our organisation and AWS for future success.”

According to a Reuters report, the notice appeared to have been sent prematurely to Amazon Web Services (AWS) employees, a day before the next round of Amazon layoffs.

AI expansion

Amazon's job cuts come at a time when AI is changing corporate workforce dynamics, as companies are using AI assistants to execute duties from routine administrative tasks to complex coding problems with rapid speed and precision, driving widespread adoption.

Last year, Amazon's CEO said that the rising use of AI tools would lead to more automation of duties, resulting in corporate job losses.

Although 30,000 jobs is a big number, it comprises nearly 10% of Amazon's corporate workforce, with the majority of its workers in fulfilment centres and warehouses, a Reuters report mentioned.

According to the agency report, the tech giant has been investing in robotics at its warehouses to speed up packaging and deliveries for its e-commerce segment in an effort to reduce the reliance on human labour and cut costs.

Companies like Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft hired many people during the global pandemic of 2020 amid the demand surge, and now are restructuring their corporate workforce.

Amazon stock was trading 0.50% higher at $245.91 during Wednesday's premarket session, compared to $244.68 at the previous market close, according to the data collected from MarketWatch. The company is set to announce its fourth quarter results for the calendar year 2025 next week.