Amazon has reportedly cut 100 staff positions from the group developing a number of key technologies for the cloud and e-commerce giant.
Reuters reported that on Wednesday Amazon had confirmed the cuts at its Devices & Services unit, the group overseeing development of such diverse products as the Kindle, Echo speakers, Alexa voice assistant and Zoox self-driving cars.
Amazon’s cuts come after cloud rival Microsoft this week confirmed it is laying off 3 percent of its workforce, in a move likely to affect thousands of staff. It is Redmond’s biggest round of layoffs since 2023, when the tech giant slashed 10,000 staff.
Job losses
And now it is reported that Amazon is axing approximately 100 jobs at its Devices & Services group.
It should be remembered that Amazon’s Devices & Services group is headed up by senior VP Panos Panay, formerly of Microsoft.
Amazon reportedly said the jobs represented a small number of the total for the unit and were part of its regular business review.
A spokesperson declined to provide Reuters with additional details about which divisions within devices and services were impacted.
“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,” said the spokesperson.
Post Covid layoffs
Amazon has aggressively cut jobs over the past couple of years, after a hiring boom during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the start of 2023 Amazon began culling its principle workforce, and in a series of redundancies, axedmore than 27,000 jobs in total.
Then in November 2023 Amazon cut “several hundred” jobs at its Alexa voice assistant division.
In January 2024, Amazon-owned game streaming service Twitch said it was cutting as many as 500 staff, or approximately 35 percent of the workforce, on top of two rounds of layoffs at the unit back in 2023.
Shortly after that it emerged that Amazon was also laying off several hundred employees in its streaming (Prime Video) and studio operations (Amazon MGM Studios), as well as 5 percent of its workforce of Audible (Amazon’s audiobook and podcast division).
Amazon also said in 2024 that it was cutting 5 percent of staff at its ‘Buy with Prime’ unit.
In February 2024 Amazon also confirmed it was cutting “a few hundred roles” at its health focused units, namely the One Medical and Pharmacy divisions. It came after a small number of staff had been let go at Amazon’s Pharmacy unit in July 2023.
Amazon more recently has been conducting small cuts to various groups in recent months, including its Wondery podcast, stores and communications units, Reuters noted.
The Seattle retailer added about 4,000 jobs from last year’s fourth quarter to this year’s first, according to its most recent earnings release.
Alexa+
The Amazon cuts to the group that is developing the Alexa voice assistant is notable.
Amazon in February 2025 finally unveiled its long-touted AI overhaul of Alexa, which it promised will be “a smarter, more conversational, and more capable voice assistant.”
Amazon at the time helpfully provided a list of 50 plus tasks the next-generation AI assistant can help with, including have full-on conversations; answer questions on any topic; get real-time news and information; receive personalised news summaries; and remember important details for the user such as dietary requirements.
But perhaps one of the most surprising revelations is that Amazon opted to make Alexa+ free for all Prime members, which is a remarkable act that potentially opens Alexa+ to a much wider audience (Amazon currently has 200 million Prime customers worldwide).
For non-Prime members, Alexa+ will cost $19.99 per month.
Alexa+ will arrive at Prime households with an Echo Show 8, 10, 15, and 21.
Alexa+ will also be available via the Alexa mobile app and web browser.
