Amazon has announced plans to cut another 16000 jobs globally as part of broader post-pandemic restructuring and the expansion of artificial intelligence adoption.
Last week, Reuters reported that Amazon is planning a second round of layoffs to reach its goal of cutting roughly 30,000 corporate jobs.
The massive cut is expected to affect employees belonging to retail, Amazon Web Services, Prime Video and human resources departments.
In the first round, the multinational e-commerce company axed 14,000 white-collar jobs in late October.
The CEO Andy Jassy stressed on the need to reduce excessive bureaucracy by slashing operational levels and numbers of managers.
The recent plan of lay-offs also underscores the rise in AI adoption. AI-based assistants and agentic AI models have brought significant automation in various administrative tasks and coding problems, reducing the need of human-touch.
Moreover, Amazon has also invested in robotics which would be helpful in speeding packaging and deliveries for e-commerce.
At the World Economic Forum, the tech leaders and top executives voiced concerns over the impacts of AI on job markets.
The IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that the AI will hit the labour markets like a “tsunami.”
“We expect over the next few years, in advanced economies, 60% of jobs to be affected by AI, either enhanced or eliminated or transformed – 40% globally. This is like a tsunami hitting the labour market,” she said.
Besides Amazon, other tech firms like Microsoft and Meta have also been involved in post-pandemic workforce restructuring.