- Amazon Web Services is laying off at least several hundred employees in a global reorganisation.
- Job cuts affect sales and marketing, with a shift towards AI-driven services and cost efficiency.
What happened: Amazon trims workforce in AWS as part of AI-driven realignment
Amazon’s cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has laid off several hundred employees globally, according to Reuters. The redundancies affect workers across its sales, marketing, and technology departments. Sources familiar with the matter described the cuts as part of a restructuring initiative tied to broader shifts in the company’s cloud computing strategy.
The job cuts come as Amazon continues to push deeper into artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to reorient parts of its AWS operations to better compete with Microsoft and Google. The redundancies follow a similar AWS reorganisation earlier this year, in which hundreds of roles were removed from its physical store technology and healthcare teams. While Amazon declined to comment on the exact number of layoffs, insiders suggest that the total runs into the high hundreds globally.
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Why this is important
The AWS layoffs underscore Amazon’s strategic pivot towards high-growth, AI-driven cloud services, a trend reshaping the broader tech industry. AWS has long been a core profit driver for Amazon, but pressure from rivals such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud—particularly in AI offerings—has pushed the company to realign resources.
This is part of a growing trend across the sector, where major players are trimming traditional roles while heavily investing in generative AI. In the past year, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have all initiated job cuts in legacy teams to redirect funding into AI research and infrastructure. Industry analysts see these restructurings as necessary, though disruptive, adjustments to meet evolving enterprise demand.
However, the impact on employees is stark. AWS has been seen as a stable employer even through previous downturns. As cloud providers shift focus, roles that once seemed secure—especially in sales and general marketing—are increasingly vulnerable. This signals a tighter labour market in tech, even as AI job openings expand.
