Around 250 people in Amazon's devices and services division, the unit behind Kindle e-readers and Echo smart speakers were told on Wednesday morning that their roles had been eliminated, Reuters reported. The affected positions are mainly in software development, according to a person familiar with the matter.
One of the early-morning messages seen by Reuters came from Cherie Robinson, a human resources vice president in the devices and services division, who said the company had undergone "a thorough review of our structure" leading to the job cuts.
"We've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles," an Amazon spokesperson said, adding that the cuts would help the company "operate more efficiently and better align with our product roadmap."
A day before the cuts were announced, Amazon published an internal memo sent to its Software Development Engineers, urging them to use AI to solve real customer problems rather than merely inflate usage statistics. The memo warned: "We all need to embrace this change and take the time to learn, or we risk being left behind," noting that AI will be central to software engineering going forward.
The job cuts in the devices division were announced on the same day Amazon unveiled five new Alexa-powered devices.
The devices round extends a wave of layoffs that eliminated roughly 1,000 positions in Amazon's retail business earlier this month. Employees in the United States, India, and the United Kingdom were among those affected by the retail restructuring.
The figure of 250 is a ceiling rather than a confirmed count, it comes from an anonymous source and Amazon has not published its own total. The company confirmed the layoffs to Reuters but did not provide further details.
Source: Reuters
