Amazon has laid off 100 workers from its devices and services team, which works on products like Kindle, Echo speakers, the Alexa voice assistant, and Zoox self-driving cars. The company confirmed the job cuts on Wednesday in a statement.
Amazon said these layoffs make up a small part of the whole team and that they don’t make these decisions lightly. Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt said the company decided to cut a small number of jobs to improve how its teams work and to better match its future product plans. Schmidt added that it was a tough decision and that Amazon is focused on helping the employees who are affected during this time of change.
“As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our product roadmap, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon has been making small job cuts in different parts of the company in recent months, including teams working on Alexa, Wondery podcasts, stores, and communications. In 2023, it also reduced some roles related to Alexa, Reuters reported.
Even though some jobs were cut, Amazon added around 4,000 new employees between the last three months of 2023 and the first three months of 2024, according to a recent earnings report.
These cost-saving moves come a few months after Amazon gave Alexa a major upgrade by adding new AI technology to make it more conversational and helpful.
CEO Andy Jassy is also working on cutting down what he called too much red tape in the company, which includes having fewer managers, Reuters reported. On the same day, Amazon’s stock closed slightly lower at $210.25.