Amazon AI layoffs: E-commerce major Amazon has confirmed that it will hand pink slips to at least 14,000 people, with more job cuts expected in the coming year, in a major shakeup driven in part by adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). At least 1,000 Indian workers of the company are likely to be impacted by the layoffs.
The layoffs, part of a broader trend, offer an early glimpse into AI’s impact on workforces. In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had said that as the company was doubling down on generative AI, it would need “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” but in the next few years, “this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”
Announcing the fresh round of layoffs Tuesday, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, said, “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 convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business”.
Last year, India’s Economic Survey 2023-24 had flagged that AI could cast a “huge pall of uncertainty” on workers across skill segments in India, with those working in more backend operations such as business processing outsourcing (BPO) under the most amount of threat.
AI-fueled layoffs
Across sectors and industries, ranging from tech giants to airlines, companies are laying off workers, citing efficiency gains due to AI, even as sceptics say that the technology has become an easy excuse for corporations to fire workers. According to industry tracker finalroundai.com, by mid-2025, almost 78,000 tech employees had lost their jobs due to AI (that’s roughly 500 people every day). IBM, Microsoft, and banks like Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs have all been in the news for tech layoffs or frozen hiring plans.
Here are some companies that have announced, or indicated, AI-induced job cuts in recent months:
Salesforce: It eliminated around 4,000 customer service roles. Executives directly referenced that AI agents were taking over much of the customer support workload.
Lufthansa: Plans to cut 4,000 jobs by 2030, linking the reductions to operational automation through expanded use of AI
Intel: Is reportedly cutting up to 24,000 jobs by the end of 2025 as part of a major restructuring that is influenced by AI and automation trends
Duolingo: Indicated a move away from contractors, noting AI’s ability to replace tasks previously handled by human workers.
Closer home, India’s IT services companies, once a key employment driver in the country, are also seeing silent layoffs as they move towards AI adoption. Earlier this year, fintech firm Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that “soon or later we will have to start using AI as an employee or even as a CFO,” and that the impact of AI on job cuts was “inevitable”.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, by 2027, it is projected that 83 million jobs will be lost worldwide due to factors like automation and AI, while only 69 million new jobs will be created, resulting in a net loss of 14 million jobs—about 2% of the current global workforce
Is the Indian workforce ready?
India has the largest pool of engineers anywhere in the world, and is often considered among the major talent capitals of the world. However, not every engineer or graduate from other disciplines might possess the necessary skills to find meaningful jobs in an increasingly automation-obsessed job market.
According to the QS World Future Skills Index 2025, India ranked considerably low in terms of skills fit for the AI world. “Employers across India are highlighting a critical gap in the workforce’s ability to meet the demands of a rapidly changing economic landscape,” the report said. “This shortfall underscores a broader challenge for India’s higher education system, which is struggling to keep pace with evolving employer needs,” it added.
A recent report by government think tank Niti Aayog cited data from the Centre of Advanced Study in India, which said that over 60% of formal sector jobs in the country are susceptible to automation by 2030. This is particularly so in the IT and BPO sectors. About half of the workers fear AI’s impact on their jobs, according to The Economic Survey last year. Further exacerbating the challenge is the fact that those in the informal sector — and about 400 million Indians are — have little access to formal training.
The report also said that India is not among the top destinations for global AI talent, with a net negative talent migration (-1.55 per 10,000). This stands in stark contrast to several Asian counterparts such as Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UAE, which have a positive net talent migration figure.
Amazon AI layoffs: At least 1,000 Indian workers of Amazon are likely to be impacted by the layoffs. (File) 
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