Amazon has confirmed that it will eliminate 16,000 corporate roles after an internal email accidentally revealed the layoffs a day early.
The premature disclosure, sent in error on the evening of the 27th of January 2026, gave employees an unwelcome heads-up about cuts the company had codenamed “Project Dawn.”
The leaked message, written by Colleen Aubrey, a Senior Vice President at Amazon Web Services, was mistakenly included in a calendar invitation titled “Send project Dawn email.” While Amazon quickly canceled the message, the damage appears to be done.
The email stated:
“This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers.”
By the morning of the 28th, Amazon made it official. Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, confirmed the cuts but tried to reassure remaining staff that the company wasn’t planning “broad reductions every few months.”
“While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now.”
The latest round brings Amazon’s total corporate job cuts to 30,000, nearly 10% of its white-collar workforce and the largest layoff in the company’s three-decade history, with roles across AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources being affected.
From Bureaucracy to Automation
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has attempted to outline the reasoning for the reductions, though his explanation has shifted over time.
When the company cut 14,000 jobs in October, an internal letter tied the move to artificial intelligence, calling it “the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet.”
But during Amazon’s third-quarter earnings call, Jassy walked that back, stating:
“[The reduction was] not really financially driven and it’s not even really AI-driven. It’s culture.”
According to Jassy, Amazon had accumulated too much bureaucracy. “You end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers,” he said.
That explanation might offer some comfort to investors, but it does little to address what these cuts mean for the customer experience Amazon claims to be protecting.
What Happens When Customer-Facing Teams Get Cut?
When you’re removing thousands of roles from retail, AWS, and other customer-facing divisions, Amazon’s customer obsession gets tested.
The company hasn’t disclosed exactly which positions are being eliminated, but previous rounds of cuts have hit customer support, account management, and technical support teams.
For AWS customers in particular, the cuts could create friction at a time when cloud complexity is increasing.
Enterprise clients rely on dedicated account teams and technical resources to navigate AWS’s sprawling service catalog. Fewer people means longer response times, less personalized support, and potentially more customers left to navigate issues through self-service channels.
Amazon has been vocal about its AI investments, showcasing new models at its annual AWS conference in December.
The implication appears to be that AI will fill the gaps left by departing employees. Whether that actually works in customer service contexts where nuance and relationship management still matter is a different story.
What This Means for CX Leaders
Amazon’s situation offers a cautionary tale for any enterprise betting heavily on AI to replace human customer service capacity.
Cutting layers can improve agility. But when those cuts hit customer-facing teams before the AI systems meant to replace them are fully proven, you risk creating service gaps that erode trust faster than any efficiency gain can justify.
The other lesson is about communication. Amazon’s accidental email leak is a reminder that layoff planning is never as contained as leadership hopes.
When news breaks early, it undermines whatever careful messaging was planned and leaves employees feeling blindsided.
For CX leaders watching Amazon’s moves, the question isn’t whether AI will reshape customer service. The question is whether organizations can manage that transition without sacrificing the relationships and responsiveness that keep customers coming back.
Amazon is making a big bet that it can. Whether that bet pays off will become clear over the next few quarters.
You can find out more about how the layoffs impact the wider UC space by checking out this article on our sister site.
