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Amazon has announced major layoffs at the end of last month. The e-commerce giant has dismissed 14000 workers from its workforce which is around 4 % of the corporate employees. Amazon is laying off these employees in order to make the company more like a “lean startup” senior leaders have explained in interviews and internal memos. It is one of the largest layoffs by Amazon and has received worldwide attention. The cutbacks which began in late October are said to have “nothing to do with cost” or with the impacts of AI-driven automation but are meant to help make the company more agile according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and other leaders. In a 2-page letter sent to employees in late October Senior Vice President Beth Galetti stated that Amazon is not only laying off employees due to overstaffing but also because the tech giant is reshaping its corporate structure and flattening its hierarchy. Senior Vice President Amit Agarwal who is in charge of Amazon’s Emerging Markets told CNBC in a phone interview earlier this week that the layoffs are designed to make Amazon “leaner and meaner” by cutting “layers of the organization” and empowering employees and teams by removing unnecessary management levels. Agarwal said that the change would allow the company to act more agile and reduce the “friction in decision-making” as Amazon continues to target the larger bets that it will make in the future while utilising artificial intelligence (AI) across the organisation. The changes come as a way to “make the entire organisation smaller” according to Agarwal “while the outside continues to grow.” Agarwal who is in charge of Amazon’s Emerging Markets said in an interview and in public remarks that the layoffs are designed to make Amazon “leaner and meaner” by flattening “layers of the organisation” and empowering employees and teams by getting rid of unnecessary management levels. Agarwal stated in an interview “We also think that in an AI-first world it’s even more important to act with that sense of agility to reduce the friction in decision-making while we continue to focus on the bigger bets we make in the future.” Leadership has stated that Amazon will keep hiring in critical places despite the reduction in employees. Amazon’s senior vice president in charge of technology and people experience Beth Galetti stated in a letter to employees in October that “as we continue to make changes across the company we are also going to be hiring” in growth areas according to Business Insider.