NEW YORK — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company’s latest round of 14,000 job cuts wasn’t motivated by cost-cutting or automation — but by a need to fix what he calls a “cultural drift” within the company.
Speaking during the company’s earnings call on Thursday, Jassy said the decision to trim staff was “not really financially driven, and it’s not even really AI driven — not right now. It’s culture.”
The comment came as Amazon reported 13 per cent year-over-year sales growth, reaching US$180 billion in quarterly revenue. Despite the company’s strong financial performance, Jassy said years of expansion had left the tech giant bloated and slow-moving.
“As Amazon added headcount, locations and lines of business, you end up with a lot more people than before — and a lot more layers,” he explained. “Sometimes, without realizing it, you can weaken the ownership of the people actually doing the work. It can slow you down as a leadership team.”
Jassy said Amazon remains committed to operating “like the world’s largest startup,” which means removing bureaucracy and flattening management layers to keep the company agile.
Amazon’s workforce peaked at 1.6 million employees in 2021 before dropping to about 1.5 million by the end of last year, according to SEC filings.
While Jassy framed the layoffs as part of a cultural reset rather than a financial or AI-driven move, analysts say the timing reflects a broader effort to prepare for the company’s AI transformation and maintain competitiveness amid tightening margins in e-commerce and cloud services.
The layoffs have nonetheless fueled anxiety among workers and critics who fear that AI efficiencies could soon displace more jobs.
Despite the workforce reduction, investors responded positively to the company’s performance — Amazon shares jumped 13 per cent after-hours following the earnings announcement.
Jassy ended his remarks by reinforcing the company’s long-term vision:
“We’re not downsizing because of weakness — we’re optimizing for innovation. Culture drives everything at Amazon, and we intend to keep it that way.”