It’s ironic that, with Halloween just around the corner, other events are sending a chill up many a retailer’s spine. This week, just a few days after Target reported it would eliminate 1,800 corporate jobs, Amazon announced plans to lay off 30,000 corporate roles, with 14,000 gone immediately. The cuts amount to 10 per cent of corporate roles and is its largest cull since 2022. Meanwhile, reports suggested that the move could affect a variety of divisions, including HR, operations and
ns and Amazon Web Services, though exact numbers could shift as the company’s financial priorities evolve.
The news of Amazon’s layoffs doesn’t come entirely as a surprise, considering that this June, CEO Andy Jassy warned that the company’s increased usage of AI tools would likely reduce the company’s corporate workforce in the next few years, particularly regarding automating repetitive and routine tasks.
In the memo, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, Beth Galetti, explained that the layoffs also signal an increased focus on artificial intelligence to maintain the company’s competitive edge.
“The world is changing quickly,” she said. “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before in existing market segments and altogether new ones.
“We’re convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
Are pre-holiday layoffs a signal of the retail industry’s impending doom?
The short answer is yes, according to Scott Benedict, the founder and CEO of Benedict Enterprises, an omnichannel retail consulting firm.
He explained that, typically, retailers add on, not severely cut, jobs to keep up with the increased workload as they gear up for Black Friday/Christmas madness.
However, with major retail players like Amazon and Target reducing their corporate workforce before the holiday season, Benedict warned that this doesn’t just reflect a simple staffing decision; it’s an indicator of a far more unpredictable economic environment heading into 2026.
“As someone who’s lived through many retail cycles, I can’t help but view this as a warning light for our industry – one that underscores the need for agility, smarter forecasting and digital-first merchandising disciplines.
“Retailers can’t rely on ‘holiday magic’ to make the year. They need sharper execution, leaner operations, and better alignment across stores, digital and supply chain.
“If we’re cutting before we’re selling, the message is clear: confidence is slipping. The question is – what will we do about it?”
Amazon’s layoffs signal a time for retailers to dig in, not give up
Providing a more positive perspective, Global Data’s managing director, Neil Saunders, remarked that, unlike the Target layoffs, Amazon is operating from a position of strength.
“The company has been producing good growth, and it still has a lot of headroom for further expansion in both the US and overseas,” he said.
While Amazon is still in a good position, especially compared to some of its competitors, the brand is not immune to the global tightening of markets as underlying costs continue to rise.
Saunders stated that Amazon will need to act if it wants to maintain strong bottom-line performance, especially given the investments the company is making in areas such as logistics and AI.
“In some ways, this is a tipping point away from human capital to technological infrastructure.”
Similar to Saunders, CI&T’s global director of retail strategy, Melissa Minkow, views Amazon’s move as a moment of “right-sizing” rather than a signal of disaster.
“Amazon has acknowledged that they grew and hired at record rates during the peak of Covid, because of the e-commerce boom. They were especially in need of a large headcount during that time.”
With the cost of goods rising and economic growth slowing, Minkow noted that Amazon and many other large-scale retailers no longer need as large a workforce.
“Simultaneously,” she added, “they have been a brand that’s on the more experimental side with AI implementation, and it is inevitably going to impact the workforce. This is a trend we’ll see among many retailers who grew rapidly during Covid.”
Replacing workforce tasks with tech is an inevitability that retailers can no longer ignore
Whether one likes it or not, the reality is that the workforce will change drastically as we delve further into the generative AI boom.
What started with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has slowly become a growing normalisation of companies employing customised AI agents to automate functions in customer support, marketing, content creation, and other fields.
A study released by financial services firm Goldman Sachs this August suggested that at least 6-7 per cent of US workers could lose their jobs because of AI adoption by the end of 2025.
Additionally, the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, using ADP employment data, found that entry-level hiring in “AI-exposed jobs” has dropped 13 per cent since large language models started escalating. The report confirmed that jobs in software development, customer service, and clerical work are the most vulnerable to AI today.
By 2030, the World Economic Forum estimated that the onslaught of AI, robotics, and automation could displace 92 million jobs, while adding 170 million new roles in areas such as AI development, research, safety, implementation, and robotics.
“We are at the beginning of a multi-decade progress development that will have a major impact on the labour market,” said Gad Levanon, a chief economist at the Burning Glass Institute, a research firm that focuses on changes in the economy and workforce.
For the time being, large-scale brands like Amazon are still steadily hiring seasonal workers to prepare for the holiday rush, man stores, and help pack orders.
Looking ahead, retailers that really want to stay ahead of the game should follow the lead of players like Walmart, which is taking the initiative to offer a customised AI certification program for US frontline and office-based employees.
As Walmart’s president and CEO, John Furner, stated, “The future of retail won’t be defined by technology alone – it will be defined by people who know how to use it.
“By bringing AI training directly to our associates, we’ll enable our people to maximise the benefit of AI-powered technology – giving them the skills they need to rewrite the playbook and shape the future of retail.”
Further reading: AI, transparency, upskilling: How Amazon is adapting for the future of e-commerce
