Amazon job cuts were mistakenly confirmed when an internal communication regarding layoffs was prematurely shared with employees at Amazon Web Services, as reported by Reuters.
This email, authored by Colleen Aubrey, the senior vice president of applied AI solutions at AWS, was intended to be distributed on the morning of 28 January but was sent out a day earlier, on 27 January. It incorrectly indicated that employees in the US, Canada, and Costa Rica had already been notified.
Amazon is speculated to be laying off around 16,000 corporate positions this week.
Additionally, Reuters mentioned that a Slack message referred to these layoffs as “Project Dawn.” A scheduled meeting for 28 January was subsequently cancelled.
Aubrey expressed in a follow-up internal memo, cited by Reuters, that changes of this nature are challenging for everyone involved. She emphasized that such difficult decisions are made thoughtfully to align the organisation and AWS for future advancements.
The impending job losses are anticipated to affect multiple sectors of Amazon’s operations, including AWS, retail, Prime Video, and human resources. At this point, Amazon has not disclosed the specific number of positions or teams that will be impacted.
Previously, Amazon indicated the possibility of eliminating around 30,000 roles overall. The first significant job reduction occurred in October 2025, when the company announced approximately 14,000 layoffs.
In a separate development, Amazon also laid off staff from its Fresh grocery and Amazon Go divisions this week, though precise numbers were not shared by the company.
These recent layoffs coincide with Amazon’s shift towards greater automation and a heightened focus on artificial intelligence, a transformation that the company claims is reshaping its operational approach.