AI push sparks new waves of layoffs across major firms

SINGAPORE: The push for artificial intelligence (AI) may just—as everyone has feared—have pushed jobs away.

Amazon announced on Tuesday that it will slash about 14,000 roles in its global corporate workforce, with more cuts expected next year.

The move follows similar job cuts by Facebook owner Meta and educational technology firm Chegg in the past week.

About 600 laid-off Meta employees in the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) unit, Superintelligence Labs, were reportedly notified last Wednesday of job cuts as part of efforts to tackle “organisational bloat” following a period of rapid hiring during its AI expansion.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Chegg announced it would cut 388 roles globally, or nearly half its workforce, citing “new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers” that have led to a significant decline in its traffic and revenue.

Channel News Asia (CNA), citing a Reuters report on Monday, said Amazon began cutting jobs across multiple divisions to address over-hiring during the pandemic and curb costs as the holiday selling season approaches.

Although the company has not confirmed reports that up to 30,000 employees could eventually be laid off, it signalled in a company-wide email that more cuts were planned.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had warned in June that increased use of AI tools and agents would likely lead to more corporate job cuts, particularly through automating routine work.

At the end of last year, Amazon had about 1.56 million full-time and part-time employees, including roughly 350,000 in corporate roles.

Many affected workers told Reuters they were informed they were “no longer required to perform work on Amazon’s behalf” through their personal email early Tuesday morning.

The message, sent by Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, also gave laid-off employees the option to meet with a human resources representative via video call.

“Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated and your employment will end after a non-working period,” the email read. /TISG

Read also: Amazon CEO: While you’re still in your 20s, figure out what you ‘don’t’ want to do

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