Amazon made headlines this week with the announcement that 14,000 employees would be leaving the company—a decision that, according to Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy, was not primarily motivated by cost-cutting imperatives or an immediate push toward artificial intelligence integration. Instead, Jassy clarified that the layoffs were deeply rooted in a broader effort to realign the company’s culture and restore what he perceives as core values essential to maintaining Amazon’s agility, focus, and productivity.
During Amazon’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Jassy addressed the matter publicly for the first time since the cuts were announced on Tuesday. He emphasized that the decision was not financially engineered, nor was it a response to the accelerating global trend toward AI-driven business restructuring—at least not at this specific juncture. Rather, as Jassy explained, the move emerged from an internal reevaluation of how effectively Amazon’s workforce embodies and sustains the company’s distinctive cultural identity, one that prizes ownership, efficiency, and decisive action.
This comment underscores a continuing initiative by Jassy to reshape and reinvigorate Amazon’s organizational culture, which he has described throughout the year as a top strategic priority. His goals include instituting higher performance standards, fostering stronger accountability, and removing procedural obstacles that can slow operational momentum. The layoffs serve as a tangible manifestation of this mission—a demonstration of Jassy’s determination to ensure that those who remain within the company are aligned with its evolving principles and operational tempo. Tuesday’s action, notably, represents the largest workforce reduction that Amazon has implemented since late 2022, when approximately 27,000 positions were eliminated amid a widespread reassessment of corporate priorities across the tech sector.
In his remarks, Jassy acknowledged that Amazon’s extraordinary growth in recent years, driven by its expansion into new markets and technologies, has unintentionally created structural layers within the company. These additional managerial and procedural complexities, he noted, have made decision-making slower and less direct, undermining a hallmark of Amazon’s earlier success—its ability to act rapidly and decisively in response to market shifts. He argued that the accelerating pace of technological transformation, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integral to every aspect of commerce and logistics, demands a corporate framework that is lean, nimble, and capable of rapid adaptation.
As Jassy elaborated, the accumulation of too many hierarchical layers can gradually erode a sense of ownership among individual contributors—the employees who actually execute the company’s core initiatives. When that sense of personal responsibility weakens, so too does the company’s ability to move forward efficiently. By reducing organizational complexity, Jassy hopes to rekindle that entrepreneurial spirit among Amazon’s workforce and position the company to move more swiftly in an era of continual reinvention.
Amazon’s restructuring is part of a larger trend within the technology industry, often referred to as the “Great Flattening.” Other major players, including Google and Microsoft, have similarly begun dismantling excess managerial layers in an effort to streamline their organizations, cut through bureaucracy, and reestablish the pace of innovation that defined their earlier years. For these companies, as for Amazon, the goal is not simply financial austerity but the creation of structures that encourage agility, accountability, and creativity.
Financially, Amazon disclosed that the recent round of layoffs resulted in approximately $1.8 billion in severance-related expenses during the last quarter. While that figure underscores the immediate financial impact of the move, the company has consistently framed the decision as a forward-looking one—an investment in long-term operational clarity rather than a reaction to short-term cost pressures. Amazon has also reiterated that advances in artificial intelligence are enabling unprecedented speeds of innovation across its business units, requiring the company to continually refine its internal practices and decision-making frameworks.
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Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-job-cuts-driven-by-culture-not-ai-says-ceo-2025-10
