Amazon Lays Off Engineers Who Trained Their AI Replacements
Amazon laid off 2,847 Prime Video engineers after they spent eight months documenting their workflows specifically to train an AI system. The move has sparked a massive debate about automation, with one viral post noting the company "made their workers build their own replacements."
The recent layoffs are part of a much larger workforce reduction at Amazon, with the company cutting approximately 30,000 corporate jobs since October 2025. These cuts represent the most significant workforce reduction in the company's history and have impacted numerous divisions, including Prime Video, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and robotics. CEO Andy Jassy has publicly stated that the integration of artificial intelligence is a key driver for this restructuring. In a June 2025 memo, Jassy told employees he expected AI to lead to a reduction in the corporate workforce as the company gains "efficiency gains from using AI extensively." The internal messaging has centered on creating a leaner company structure. An internal memo from SVP Beth Galetti mentioned the goal of "reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy" to innovate more quickly. Some of the layoffs were internally referred to as "Project Dawn," an initiative focused on efficiency. These layoffs occurred despite Amazon's strong financial performance, with the company's revenue growing and its stock hitting an all-time high in late 2025. The company is investing heavily in AI infrastructure, with a reported $125 billion allocated for AI and data centers in 2025 alone. The cuts have disproportionately affected mid-level managers and various engineering roles. In one wave of layoffs, nearly 40% of the eliminated positions across four states were engineering jobs, even as the company stressed the need to "innovate much faster." This trend extends beyond Amazon, with the broader tech industry seeing significant job cuts attributed to the rise of AI and automation. In 2025, over 127,000 workers at US-based tech companies lost their jobs, with AI being a frequently cited reason for the reductions. While Amazon has stated that AI is not the sole reason for the majority of the layoffs, the strategic shift is clear. Leaked internal documents suggest a long-term plan to automate a significant portion of its operations, potentially replacing or avoiding the need to hire hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming years.
