Amazon on Wednesday laid off 250 employees, with impacted workers receiving notifications via email and text messages early in the morning. The layoffs were reported in the company’s devices unit, which
is responsible for products including Kindle e-readers and Echo smart speakers.
The job cuts have primarily affected software development roles.
According to Reuters, one of the emails about the job cuts was from Amazon Vice President Cherie Robinson. According to Robinson, the company has conducted a “thorough review of our structure”, leading to the layoffs.
Later, Amazon confirmed the layoffs in a statement. “We’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles,” a spokesperson said.
The tech giant, however, did not mention how many roles were impacted. However, it stated that 250 employees were being laid off.
Why Is Amazon Firing Workers?
According to the Amazon spokesperson, the layoffs will help the company “operate more efficiently and better align with our product roadmap.”
On Tuesday, the tech giant published a September memo from its engineering leadership on the role of developers in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The memo said that “we all need to embrace this change and take the time to learn, or we risk being left behind”, adding that AI would play the central role in software engineering practices.
Previous Job Cuts
In January, Amazon laid off 16,000 job cuts after laying off 14,000 people in October last year. The layoffs come as the company continues to invest billions of dollars in artificial intelligence.
This year, Amazon is expected to invest as much as USD 220 billion in AI.
However, Amazon is not the only company to have laid off employees in the tech sector. According to multiple media reports, over 1,35,000 tech jobs have been eliminated this year amid companies’ growing push for AI.
Recently, Microsoft offered voluntary exit options to roughly 60,000 workers.
