Amazon slashes jobs even as it ramps up spending on AI

The corporate layoffs include recruiters, engineers and managers.

- Queenie Wong

AMAZON INC. plans to eliminate about 14,000 corporate jobs months after CEO Andy Jassey warned that AI will shrink the workforce.

Amazon plans to slash roughly 14,000 corporate jobs as the e-commerce giant competes in the race to advance artificial intelligence.

A company executive told employees on Tuesday that even though Amazon's business is performing well, it aims to eliminate more layers within the company so it can “move as quickly as possible.”

“This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we've seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before [in existing market segments and altogether new ones],” wrote Beth Galetti, Amazon's senior vice president of people experience and technology, in a memo to employees the company posted online.

Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, but the company’s global workforce includes workers in the Los Angeles area. Galetti’s memo doesn’t say where the affected employees are based.

The company didn’t answer questions about whether California employees are part of the cuts. The California Employment Development Department said it hadn't received layoff notices related to Amazon's latest cuts as of Tuesday morning.