Amazon announced today (Tuesday) that it will lay off 14,000 of its employees, a move considered one of the largest rounds of layoffs in the company's history.
According to the company's statement, the move is intended to make Amazon "leaner and more efficient", while adapting to a new era in which artificial intelligence enables companies to advance at an accelerated pace.
According to a report by Reuters, Amazon is expected to lay off about 30,000 employees, as part of an overall effort to cut costs and deal with the extensive hiring that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is the company's largest round of layoffs since the end of 2022, when about 27,000 employees were dismissed.
Beth Galetti, senior vice president for human resources and technology, wrote on the company's official blog, "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it's enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones). We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business."