Amazon’s 14,000 Layoffs Show the Truth: Automation Isn’t Coming—It’s Already Here

On June 17, 2025, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent an internal memo that barely made headlines at the time. Buried in the middle of it was one sentence that now reads like a warning shot:

> “AI will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains.”$BTC

It was direct. It was unambiguous. And it was on record.

Four months later, the consequences arrived.$ETH

---

The Largest Corporate Layoffs in Amazon’s History

On October 28, 2025, Amazon announced the elimination of 14,000 corporate positions—the biggest workforce reduction the company has ever made.

The real story wasn’t the number.

It was who they cut.$BNB

Here’s the breakdown that most outlets missed:

1,900 engineers eliminated (40% of all layoffs)

Mid-level software developers hit hardest

Games division wiped out entirely

AI shopping and personalization teams gutted

And in the very same week, Amazon publicly launched Kiro, its in-house AI coding agent—a tool explicitly designed to write and maintain software at scale.

If you connect the dots, the pattern is obvious.

---

“It Wasn’t AI”—Except the Numbers Say Otherwise

Two days after the layoffs, on the October 30 earnings call, Jassy tried to rewrite the narrative:

> “This wasn’t AI-driven. Not right now at least. It’s culture.”

But leaked internal data and regulatory filings tell a different story.

Washington State’s 2025 labor filings show:

8,508 new H-1B visa applications submitted by Amazon locations in Seattle and Bellevue

2,303 local employees cut in the same offices

This isn’t a coincidence—it’s a workforce restructuring.

As AI tools scale, companies shed experienced workers, then refill selectively with lower-cost visa labor for the roles still requiring human oversight.