Amazon Layoff Postponed? The Truth Behind One Of The Biggest Job Cuts And AI Shake Ups Ever

A leaked email mistakenly sent to staff on Tuesday sparked immediate panic, revealing the scale and speed of cuts even before Amazon had officially informed anyone. The email referenced a forthcoming blog post by Beth Galetti, Amazon's HR chief, linking the cuts to increased AI adoption and operational restructuring.

While the company is now scrambling to explain the layoff plan, the incident highlights bigger forces reshaping the tech giant.

The Panic Behind The Postponed Email

On Tuesday, Amazon mistakenly sent early notifications to AWS staff about Wednesday's layoffs, including a commiseration email and team-wide meeting invitation. While the company has not confirmed the number of impacted employees, reports indicate that up to 16,000 roles could be cut this week, following last year's 14,000-job reduction. This would bring the cumulative total close to 30,000 corporate positions, nearly 10 per cent of the company's corporate workforce.

The errant email referenced a blog post from Amazon's head of human resources, Beth Galetti, which has yet to appear publicly. That post reportedly linked these job cuts to increased AI adoption, hinting at further reductions in the future. Employees reacted with disbelief, commenting that finding out you may lose your job because someone accidentally hit 'send' is shocking, and reflecting growing concerns about corporate priorities over worker welfare.

Who Is Affected By The Latest Amazon Layoffs

The latest round of job cuts primarily targets white-collar staff rather than warehouse or delivery employees. Internal sources and employee posts suggest corporate teams across Amazon Web Services, Prime Video, HR and internal operations, retail strategy, analytics, and program management face the brunt of the reductions.

India appears particularly exposed, with corporate hubs in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai experiencing heightened uncertainty. These teams support global operations, cloud infrastructure, and internal tools, meaning the layoffs could ripple across Amazon's international footprint.

Employees are reporting shock, anxiety, and anger on internal discussion boards and social platforms. Memes mocking Jeff Bezos' 'two-pizza rule' have gone viral, illustrating the growing tension as staff struggle to process the repeated cuts and opaque performance metrics driving decisions.

Amazon frames the layoffs as part of a structural reset to build a leaner and more efficient organisation. Multiple factors contribute to this sweeping corporate move.

Excess management layers have accumulated over years of hiring, creating overlapping roles and slowing decision-making. Post-pandemic normalisation has also played a role, with growth projections from 2020 to 2022 failing to materialise at expected scales.

AI and automation now perform many routine reporting, planning, and operational tasks, reducing the need for large teams. Meanwhile, Amazon is redirecting capital toward higher-priority areas such as cloud infrastructure, AI development, and long-term logistics efficiency.

This reshaping is not limited to internal teams. On Tuesday, Amazon also cut jobs in its Fresh grocery and Go market divisions as it plans to close or convert stores into Whole Foods locations. The total number of affected employees in these divisions remains undisclosed.

What This Means For Employees

For employees, these developments are more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Anxiety is high as staff scramble to understand what roles are safe and what severance or support packages might be offered.

As Amazon navigates one of its most turbulent phases, the accidental leak and subsequent postponement highlight just how precarious life inside Big Tech can be, and how AI-driven efficiency is reshaping the modern workplace.