Amazon layoffs 2025: CEO Andy Jassy defends 14,000 job cuts, says layoffs are not about 'costs or AI'

Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy has defended the company’s decision to cut nearly 14,000 corporate jobs, insisting the move was driven by cultural, not financial or technological, considerations.

The remarks came during Amazon’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday, marking the first time Jassy publicly addressed the sweeping job cuts, which were announced earlier this week.

Jassy explained that the announcement that made a few days ago was not financially driven, nor AI-driven, "not right now at least. It really — it’s culture,” Jassy said.

Jassy’s comments come as part of Amazon’s broader push to reshape its corporate culture, a theme explored in a recent Business Insider report. Since taking over as CEO, Jassy has sought to raise performance standards, streamline processes, and eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies that have slowed decision-making at the company.

He explained that Amazon’s rapid expansion in recent years had led to the creation of “a lot more layers,” which hindered agility. Jassy said they need they need to operate leaner and move faster, especially as industries worldwide undergo major transformation due to artificial intelligence (AI).

However, the explanation marks a departure from the initial reasoning shared by Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology. In a blog post on Tuesday, Galetti attributed the layoffs partly to the accelerating impact of AI, which she described as “the most transformative technology since the Internet.”

“This generation of AI is enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before — both in existing markets and entirely new ones,” Galetti wrote.

The cuts represent Amazon’s largest round of layoffs since it eliminated 27,000 roles in late 2022, according to Business Insider.

The move also reflects a wider shift across Big Tech, where firms such as Google and Microsoft are embracing what analysts call “The Great Flattening” — reducing managerial layers to streamline operations, cut bureaucracy, and adapt more swiftly to technological change.