ISTANBUL

US tech and e-commerce giant Amazon announced Tuesday that it plans to lay off about 14,000 corporate jobs, signifying the most recent reductions in the firm's multi-year cost-cutting initiative.

Amazon stated in a blog post that the layoffs are being implemented in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and make the company leaner while it looks to invest in "our biggest bets," which include generative artificial intelligence (AI).

"While this will include reducing in some areas and hiring in others, it will mean an overall reduction in our corporate workforce of approximately 14,000 roles," it said.

"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)," Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology at Amazon, said.

"We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business," she added.

According to CNBC, the layoffs are ultimately expected to be Amazon's largest corporate job cuts in its history.

With almost 1.54 million employees worldwide as of the end of the second quarter, Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the US. The majority of that number consists of its warehouse employees.

With over 350,000 corporate and IT workers, the 14,000 layoffs account for nearly 4% of the company's workforce. The firm stated that although it intends to continue hiring in "key strategic areas," it will continue to lay off workers in the upcoming year.

As a result of adopting generative AI, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated in June that the company's employment would continue to decline, informing employees that it "will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs."

Over the past three years, Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos as CEO in 2021, has been working to reduce expenses throughout the organization. After laying off 27,000 workers between 2022 and 2023, Amazon has continued to reduce its workforce, albeit on a reduced scale.