In a bid to trim operational costs and ramped up investments in artificial intelligence, Amazon revealed that it will lay off tens of thousands of office workers, US media reports
Some 30,000 positions will be cut as move is expected to begin on Tuesday, multiple news outlets reported.
The reduction will represent nearly 10 percent of the approximately 350,000 office jobs at Amazon but is reported not to affect the distribution and warehouse workforce that makes up the majority of the company’s more than 1.5 million employees.
Seattle-based Amazon did not reply to AFP queries regarding the planned cuts reported by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other outlets citing anonymous sources.
Amazon shares ended the formal trading day up slightly as word of the potential cost-cutting move spread.
Recently, Amazon Chief Executive, Andy Jassy lauded the potential of AI to streamline workplace operations, from engaging with customers online to making offices more efficient.
“Our conviction that AI will change every customer experience is starting to play out,” Jassy was quoted as saying during Amazon’s last quarterly earnings call.
Amazon will next report earnings on Thursday, and is among the tech titans under pressure to show the merit of huge investments in AI.
“AWS will be under pressure to both show revenue acceleration and operating margin improvement in light of its massive AI investments,” Emarketer principal analyst Sky Canaves said, referring to Amazon
