Amazon Restructures India Teams for AI Speed

Amazon’s decision to lay off between 500 and 700 employees in India is not just another chapter in Big Tech’s ongoing job cuts; it signals a structural rethink of how global technology companies are organising work in an AI-first era.

The layoffs, part of a broader global reduction impacting around 16,000 roles, have disproportionately affected technology and HR teams, with software development engineer (SDE) roles taking the hardest hit. While Amazon declined to comment directly, it pointed to an internal note from Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President, People Experience and Technology, Amazon, outlining a push to reduce layers, remove bureaucracy, and increase ownership.

What stands out is not the scale alone but where the cuts landed.

What Amazon Emphasized Internally

In her note to employees, Galetti framed the changes as part of an effort to simplify Amazon’s organisational structure. The company, she said, is reducing layers to move faster, clarify ownership, and strengthen execution—while continuing to hire selectively in strategic areas.

“The reductions we are making today will impact approximately 16,000 roles across Amazon, and we're again working hard to support everyone whose role is impacted,” Galetti said, adding that the company would provide severance, outplacement support, and health benefits, subject to local regulations.

She also stressed that the cuts were not intended to become a recurring pattern, even as teams continue to reassess speed, capacity, and the ability to invent for customers.

Why Tech And HR Were Hit Hardest

The concentration of layoffs in tech and people experience teams reflects a broader industry shift: AI is beginning to absorb tasks once handled by large engineering and coordination-heavy functions.

Across Amazon’s India offices, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai, earlier cuts had already thinned mid-senior and senior layers. In some cases, entire teams were let go. The current round appears to extend that logic further, targeting roles where automation, tooling, and AI-assisted workflows are increasingly replacing coordination-heavy work.

Rather than signalling a retreat from India, the move suggests something more nuanced: India’s role is evolving from scale-heavy execution to leaner, outcome-driven delivery.

India As A Global Talent Hub Under Pressure

Over the past decade, India has grown into one of Amazon’s most important global talent hubs, housing engineering, product development, and operations teams supporting both domestic and international markets.

That scale, however, also made India more exposed as Amazon reassessed productivity, layers, and output. Sources indicated that performance during recent sales events and shifting priorities may have contributed to how the impact played out locally.

This mirrors a broader pattern across the tech industry, where regions built for rapid expansion are now being recalibrated for efficiency and accountability.

The AI Undercurrent Behind The Cuts

While Amazon has not directly linked the layoffs to AI adoption, the timing is difficult to ignore. Enterprises across sectors are increasingly using AI to automate tasks once handled by large teams, particularly in engineering support, internal tooling, and HR operations.

In 2025 alone, Indian startups laid off over 9,500 employees, underscoring how automation-led efficiency is reshaping workforce planning across the ecosystem.

At Amazon, the restructuring suggests AI is not just a growth lever but an organisational design tool, allowing companies to operate with fewer layers, tighter feedback loops, and more concentrated ownership.

What Amazon’s India layoffs reveal is a shift that many enterprises are quietly making:

Headcount is no longer the primary indicator of capability.

Instead, companies are optimising for:

• Fewer layers between decision and execution
• AI-assisted productivity over team size
• Clear ownership over distributed responsibility

For India’s tech workforce, this marks a transition point. The opportunity ahead may favour engineers and leaders who can operate across systems, supervise automation, and deliver outcomes, rather than manage scale alone.

Amazon’s move is not an isolated cost-cutting exercise. It is a signal of how global tech giants are redefining efficiency in an AI-driven world, where execution speed is shaped less by how many people you employ and more by how work itself is structured.