Amazon’s recent job cuts of 14,000 are just the latest signal of a growing corporate mindset: the belief that AI can deliver growth without hiring.
CEO Andy Jassy has been explicit about using AI to do more with less. In a June 2025 letter, he called Generative AI “a once-in-a-lifetime technology” that’s changing how Amazon serves customers, runs operations, and—yep—determines which roles are no longer needed.
Jassy added, “As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”
Interestingly, just days after Amazon’s announcement, Jassy insisted the layoffs weren't AI-driven at all, but part of a push to preserve a startup-like culture and org design (we talk all about what this call-for-startup org design really means in our latest piece here).
He shared, “We are committed to operating like the world’s largest startup, and that means removing layers, it means increasing the amount of ownership that people have and it means inventing and moving quickly.”
A few dynamics are driving this comfort with cutting—or freezing—headcount. Here’s what we’re seeing that’s not always being said in company memos:
Put all together, these cuts are about timing, pressure, and perception. It’s the perfect storm where AI happens to be the most convenient narrative for all three.
It also helps that investors have appeared to welcome job cuts.
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14,000 workers cut → 1% rise in stock |
48,000 workers cut → 8% rise in stock |
When Wall Street rewards “doing more with less,” it’s no wonder the new corporate mantra is less about hiring smarter, and more about hiring less in general…
So, can you grow revenue, boost profits, stay competitive, all without hiring a single new person? Some of the world’s largest companies are putting this to the test.
At first glance, these moves look like a case of just tightening the purse strings. A familiar reflex in an era of volatile markets and investor pressure. But underneath the layoffs and hiring freezes, something much more complex (and potentially transformative) is happening.
This isn’t an easy landscape for most. Many are still figuring out how to do things entirely differently—rethinking structures, workflows, our own skill sets, capabilities, and the very mix of human creativity and machine intelligence that can create something incredible.
In this way, AI and its impact isn’t purely cynical, nor is it purely visionary.
It’s both.
Yes, companies are cutting and/or not hiring to save costs, but we’re also looking at a radical rethink of what teams can accomplish when human intelligence is amplified by AI, when every employee becomes exponentially more capable.
The tension between efficiency and humanity is real, and it’s forcing leaders to redefine what productivity, purpose, and potential mean inside their organizations. Let’s take a look at the growth marketing org as an example.
Below is an experimental team structure example. Structures may vary by a wide range of factors, including but not limited to company size, industry, and AI readiness.
In this model:
Here, AI acts as the central nervous system of the org, routing insights in real time, auto-tagging issues by function, and keeping every team aligned to move faster, iterate smarter, and boost trial sign-ups with surgical precision.
Read more: Our recent piece, “AI’s Impact on Growth Marketing Orgs,” highlights how marketing teams are evolving under AI’s influence.
We’ve spoken with hundreds of companies and leaders who are all grappling with how to hire in a way that leverages AI while amplifying human potential. Here are some approaches that are proving effective.
Do you have the brand and story to attract who your business needs? Take a look at this framework:
Top AI leaders are in high demand, so closing this gap requires a strong value proposition and an understanding of the total addressable candidate market.
Develop precise and consistent talking points that are unique to your company across each layer, including why and how AI is critical to your company story to resonate with top talent.
We’ve identified that these traits often indicate success with AI-driven change.
Organizations are increasingly seeking AI-native professionals (those skilled in AI, automation, and emerging technologies) to, yes, join headcount and future-proof their workforce. A layered approach works best:
The knee-jerk reaction to AI is fear. But AI doesn’t completely eradicate the need for people. It changes what we hire for. Let’s bring back the same quote above from Jessy and this time… focus on the last sentence in this new light.
“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”
Now, we’re looking at how to create the jobs we actually need in light of AI. The challenge—and opportunity—lies in embracing this change thoughtfully, pairing AI with human potential to create entirely new ways of working.
But maybe this is how we can rethink, reshape, reclaim hiring. In this way, hiring becomes once again an intrinsically, radical human act.
Something we’ve always known.