Amazon cuts hundreds of AWS jobs amid shift towards generative AI tools

Amazon has laid off hundreds of employees in its AWS cloud division as part of a wider shift towards AI-driven automation, despite strong March-quarter growth in sales and operating income

Amazon has laid off at least several hundred employees from its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to a report by Reuters. The job cuts took place on Thursday, about a month after Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy, who has been working to reduce what he sees as unnecessary layers of management and internal complexity, indicated that the growing use of generative AI tools could lead to reductions in the workforce.

 

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to Reuters but did not disclose how many employees were affected. The company, which had around 1.6 million full- and part-time staff worldwide at the end of March, now joins other major tech firms such as Microsoft, Meta and CrowdStrike that have announced job cuts this year.

 

Many businesses are now turning to artificial intelligence for tasks such as writing software code and automating routine operations, aiming to reduce costs and become less reliant on human workers.

AWS teams affected

“We’ve made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email, as per the report. “These decisions are necessary as we continue to invest, hire and optimise resources to deliver innovation for our customers.”

 

Despite the job cuts, AWS performed strongly in the first quarter ended March 2025. Sales rose 17 per cent compared to the same period last year, reaching $29.3 billion, while operating income increased 23 per cent to $11.5 billion.

Staff notified and devices disabled

According to several employees who spoke to Reuters, some staff members received emails on Thursday morning informing them they had been let go and that their computers were being disabled.

 

While the total number of redundancies is unclear, one group known as “specialists” was confirmed to be affected. These employees typically support customers with product development and promote AWS services. Amazon said multiple teams within AWS were impacted by the layoffs.

 

These cuts are part of a broader series of layoffs at Amazon. The company has already made staff reductions in its books, devices and services segments, as well as its Wondery podcast unit.