Amazon has announced another round of job cuts, this time hitting its robotics division. At least 100 white-collar employees are being let go as part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at cutting costs and focusing more on artificial intelligence (AI). These layoffs follow a much larger round in January, when the company eliminated about 16,000 jobs worldwide.
The robotics team designs and builds warehouse automation systems, including robotic arms and conveyor technologies that help move and sort packages. Recently, Amazon also scrapped development of a project called Blue Jay, a robotic arm system showcased last year that was meant to improve efficiency in tight warehouse spaces.
Amazon regularly reviews its organisational structure to ensure teams are aligned with innovation and customer needs, though the company has not confirmed the exact number of jobs affected. Since October, the company has reduced about 30,000 corporate roles, that is, roughly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce. Most of Amazon’s 1.5 million employees are hourly workers in warehouses and logistics, so the cuts mainly affect corporate staff.
Beyond robotics, Amazon has trimmed jobs in several other divisions over the past year, including devices, books, podcasts, and public relations. Hundreds of employees in India were also impacted, showing the global scale of the restructuring.
These moves highlight a wider trend in the tech industry: after years of rapid hiring during the pandemic, companies are now tightening operations, shifting resources toward AI and automation, and prioritising efficiency. For Amazon, the layoffs reflect both cost-cutting pressures and a strategic pivot toward technologies that could reshape how its massive fulfilment network operates.