Amazon, the global e-commerce giant, announced on the 28th that it plans to cut approximately 140,000 employees to streamline operations and accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence.
Beth Galletti, senior vice president of Amazon’s Human Experience and Technology, wrote to employees that artificial intelligence is the most revolutionary technology since the birth of the Internet, enabling to innovate at an unprecedented rate.
Amazon's net sales in the second quarter of this year reached US $167.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13%. Galletti acknowledged that redundancy could raise questions given the company's good performance, but it was necessary because "the world is changing rapidly". She said that in 2026, Amazon will continue to implement flat structural adjustments to achieve efficiency improvements, while expanding recruitment in key strategic areas.
Industry insiders believe that the rise of generated artificial intelligence is reshaping the workforce structure.Amazon CEO Andy Jasi said in June this year that with the acceleration of the application of artificial intelligence technology, the demand for people working in parts of the company is decreasing, while the demand for new jobs for people is increasing.
Amazon has cut more than 270,000 jobs since 2022.
Amazon is the second largest private employer in the United States, with a total of more than 15.4 million employees worldwide as of the end of the second quarter of this year, mostly warehousing workers, with about 350,000 employees.