AWS admits to putting 16,000 jobs at risk, on top of previously announced layoffs at the end of last year. The restructuring comes despite continued monster profits and is attributed to AI.
Although almost every spokesperson for a large technology company insists that AI will create jobs, the technology primarily causes mass layoffs. For example, Amazon will cut another 16,000 jobs at AWS. Improvements in AI assistants and AI-driven automation are said to be contributing factors. AWS is also looking for more efficiency in the organization.
Oops
The American company is now making the announcement of the job losses due to its own mistake. A draft email about the layoff round was accidentally sent to some ordinary employees. This forced AWS to communicate about the restructuring, which has been given the name ‘Project Dawn’.
In October, Amazon already announced that it wanted to part with 14,000 people. That brings the total number of layoffs to 30,000. The job losses are expected to mainly take place in the US.
Layoff rain
Amazon is far from the only company that is massively laying off people. Last year, Microsoft announced that it would cut a total of 15,000 jobs, Salesforce sent 4,000 people packing, and Workday has already laid off 1,750 people due to AI at the beginning of 2025. Closer to home, ASML is laying off 1,700 people despite large profits in search of greater efficiency.