Amazon is cutting thousands of corporate jobs once again.
For Nick Plumb, a senior Amazon executive who spent eight years at the company and led global AI enablement, the news hit hard:
“Well this isn’t exactly how I hoped my day would start,” he wrote in a X post.
“After 8 years, I just got laid off — as did 16k of my peers.”
The layoffs, confirmed by Amazon on Wednesday, impact about 16,000 corporate workers, according to CNBC.
This is the second major round since October, when another 14,000 were let go.
Amazon says the cuts are part of a push to “strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy.”
Not About Performance or AI
But Plumb says the story is more complicated.
He wasn’t underperforming. He wasn’t replaced by AI. He wasn’t unwilling to relocate or take on tough problems.
“I was an L7, I led global AI enablement. I built systems executives depended on, moved wherever the company needed me, and fixed problems that had been sitting untouched because no one else could untangle them. And I was still cut.”
Plumb argues that his experience, once considered an asset, had become a liability.
“Here’s the part we’re all supposed to politely ignore: in the U.S. right now, experience isn’t an asset, it’s a liability. And if you’re expensive because you’re good at what you do, the system eventually ‘optimizes’ you out.”
A Corporate Shift Toward “Efficiency”
Amazon, like many tech companies, expanded rapidly during the pandemic to meet soaring demand for e-commerce and cloud services.
Now, it’s reversing course. CEO Andy Jassy has been trimming the workforce and reshaping Amazon into what he calls “the world’s largest startup,” slashing management layers and encouraging teams to find ways to innovate faster.
Jassy signaled last year that AI would impact staffing levels:
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”
But Plumb says AI isn’t the real driver of layoffs like his. “AI becomes the excuse, not the cause,” he wrote.
“It’s the clean narrative that hides what’s actually happening: experienced workers being swapped out through global labor substitution while leadership talks about ‘efficiency’ and ‘the future of work.'”
Global Labor, Local Costs
According to Plumb, companies are turning to cheaper labor across borders, exploiting a global market where protections vary.
“When replacement is cheaper than retention, the decision gets framed as strategy instead of consequence,” he said.
Since 2022, Amazon has laid off over 57,000 employees.
The company says this isn’t part of a new cycle of constant cuts, but acknowledges that teams will continue to evaluate how they work and make changes “as appropriate.”
Still, the trend raises big questions about what kinds of workers are valued, and who ends up bearing the cost of corporate efficiency drives.
“This doesn’t happen in isolation,” Plumb wrote.
“It’s enabled by a global labor market with almost no guardrails.”
He adds that U.S. policies treat trade, labor, and tech as separate issues when they’re clearly connected.
“Workers pay the price for that fiction.”
Turning a Layoff Into a Platform
Plumb has now launched a run for Congress in Texas’s 2nd district, saying his experience shows why policy must change.
“I understand how this system works because I’ve lived inside it, and I know it won’t fix itself. This is a rules problem, and the rules are written by people who don’t bear the cost.”
For now, he’s asking others not to just sympathize, but to take action.
“If this resonates, don’t just nod along and move on. Support my candidacy, back someone who actually understands how global labor, AI, and corporate incentives intersect.”
In Plumb’s view, the current trajectory isn’t inevitable; it’s a choice.
“By pretending this is inevitable, we’re accepting the outcome.”