Amazon's second AI cut in three months takes 16,000 more corporate jobs

Amazon told staff on 28 January 2026 that it would cut 16,000 corporate roles, three months after eliminating 14,000 in late October 2025. Together the two rounds remove roughly 9% of the company's office workforce. CEO Andy Jassy had already set out the reasoning: 'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.' He expects billions of AI agents to enter service across every field, adding that many 'have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they're coming, and coming fast.' The internal email announcing the cut went out a night early, referring to a blog post that had not been published yet. For corporate workers anywhere, Amazon is the clearest evidence that AI restructuring arrives in waves rather than in a single announcement you can plan around.