Tens of thousands of Amazon employees were fired because of AI

Amazon has just confirmed that it will lay off 14,000 employees to speed up the process of applying AI to company operations.

The New York Times quoted sources inside Amazon as saying that the company is expected to have a series of additional staff cuts in 2026 and will lay off a total of 30,000 employees, mainly employees doing office, service and operational jobs, jobs that can be replaced by AI.

Tens of thousands of Amazon employees were fired because of AI - 1

Tens of thousands of Amazon employees will have their jobs "robbed" by AI in the near future (Illustration: AI).

“The company is cutting bureaucracy, eliminating layers, and redirecting resources to ensure we invest in our biggest bets,” Beth Galetti, Amazon’s chief people officer, wrote in an email to all company employees announcing the layoffs.

“Some people may ask why we are reducing staff when the company is doing well. What we need to remember is that the world is changing very quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we have seen since the internet and it is allowing companies to innovate faster than ever before,” Galetti added, explaining why Amazon is laying off so many employees.

Laid-off employees will receive benefits from Amazon, including severance pay, health insurance benefits…

Many Amazon employees have complained about their sudden layoffs, with many expressing outrage at being fired, even though the company had just announced an $18 billion profit in the last quarter.

Typically, layoffs only happen when a business is struggling or losing money. However, Amazon is making this move in the context of growing revenue and profit, showing a strategy towards AI automation to optimize costs and increase operational efficiency.

“After many years of dedication and passion for this company, it is hard to believe that I was suddenly forced to leave,” one Amazon employee shared on LinkedIn.

Not only Amazon, last week Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) also laid off about 600 employees in the AI department with the reason of "accelerating the process of applying AI to business operations". That shows that even those working in the field of artificial intelligence are not outside the influence of this technology.

In an interview in August, Professor Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI”, predicted that positions such as telemarketing, low-level legal-financial analysis, online customer care… could be replaced by AI within just the next two years.

Developments at major technology corporations show that the risk of people losing their jobs to AI is gradually becoming a reality, and the workforce needs to proactively equip itself with new skills to adapt to the automation era.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/hang-chuc-nghin-nhan-vien-amazon-bi-sa-thai-vi-ai-20251031020259148.htm