AWS sheds more jobs as Jassy's automation layoff prophecy comes true

Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy's predictions that automation would cost jobs at the company have proven accurate at Amazon Web Services.

Amazon confirmed to The Register today that jobs will go at several teams at AWS, though the company declined to provide specifics on numbers, or which teams were involved. We understand around 100 jobs are at stake.

"After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we've made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS," company spokesperson Brad Glasser told us in an email.

"We didn't make these decisions lightly, and we're committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition," Glasser told us in a cookie-cutter copy of the message we received last year when AWS laid off a batch of employees. "These decisions are necessary as we continue to invest, hire, and optimize resources to deliver innovation for our customers."

An AWS spokesperson told us that despite these layoffs, overall headcount will grow as the business unit has thousands of open roles.

Sources familiar with AWS operations who requested anonymity told The Register most of the layoffs affected people in marketing and outreach roles, although chatter on sites like Blind suggests folks in frontline support and in other positions may have been affected, too.

Regardless of who was cut, we're told AWS gave workers no warning. A former employee described the process as "cold and soulless" as it involved just an unheralded email announcing their position had been eliminated.

"From what we can tell, decisions were based largely on titles and high-level optics rather than a nuanced understanding of roles, skills, or actual overlap in responsibilities," the employee claimed.

A now-ex AWS staffer said one reason for the cuts was AWS is committed to adopting generative AI “as a way to streamline operations and reduce headcount.”

Our source feels the job cuts are "premature" as Amazon’s staff remain largely unfamiliar with generative AI tools, and have not been trained on the tech. They also said Amazon’s generative AI tools are not leading edge.

"Amazon's lack of a good AI tech stack is making it difficult to keep up with those who can use much stronger models like [Chat]GPT," the AWS insider said. "This raises questions about the practicality and timing of such a transition."

Amazon contends that it gives employees plenty of time to learn about AI tools and how to use them in their roles, and told us that many are already using it effectively. As one example, a spokesperson told us that internal Amazon developers saved more than 450,000 collective hours on manual technical investigations using one tool.

The Register has not, however, received an on-the-record denial that AI did not contribute to these layoffs.

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Our sources also tell us that changes in AWS marketing may have contributed to the layoffs.

"AWS Marketing is in the middle of transitioning to Adobe Managed Services," the former staffer told us, adding that the move is a "major departure" from AWS’s previous internal management of such processes.

Amazon denied that the latest round of layoffs have anything to do with Adobe.

Amazon boss Andy Jassy last month sent a memo in which he warned that jobs would go at Amazon as the company implements more AI.

"We expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company," Jassy told staffers - and it seems that efficiency guillotine is already falling. ®