Amazon plans to cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, marking its second major round of layoffs since last October, when it let go of 14,000 employees. These reductions are part of a strategy to streamline operations by removing bureaucratic layers and enhancing ownership among employees. The company is also focusing on investing in artificial intelligence, which plays a role in its long-term vision. The recent job cuts represent around 10% of Amazon's corporate and tech workforce, which totals about 350,000. This follows a broader trend of downsizing, with over 27,000 employees laid off from 2022 to 2023. CEO Andy Jassy has emphasized the need for a leaner workforce, a shift from the rapid hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic driven by increased demand for e-commerce and cloud services. He aims to foster a corporate culture that resembles a startup, promoting faster innovation and reducing management layers. Amid these layoffs, Amazon is also closing its Fresh and Go grocery chains as part of a cost-cutting initiative to invest more in AI and data center infrastructure. Jassy has indicated that efficiency improvements from AI may further reduce the company's headcount in the coming years, as some job functions become obsolete while new roles emerge.