Amazon’s AI Pivot Hits Home: 2,400 Washington Jobs Cut as October Plan Executes

The axe has officially fallen in Seattle. Two months after announcing a sweeping plan to reduce its global corporate headcount by 14,000, Amazon has confirmed the specific impact on its home turf: approximately 2,400 employees in Washington state will lose their jobs starting in early February. The details, solidified in filings released this week, mark the execution phase of a strategy executives describe as a necessary pivot to fund a $100 billion investment in artificial intelligence.

Key Facts

• Local Impact: 2,400 jobs cut across Seattle and Bellevue, including software engineers, HR specialists, and UX designers.
• Context: These cuts are not new; they are the local implementation of the 14,000-role reduction announced in October 2025.
• Effective Date: Separations begin February 2, 2026.
• Source: WebProNews, GeekWire

Execution, Not Surprise

For months, employees in the Puget Sound region have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. While the broader layoff numbers were publicized in October, the specific notifications are only now triggering official state WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) alerts. This week’s confirmation dispels the uncertainty but confirms the damage: Amazon is shedding legacy roles to aggressively finance its battle for AI supremacy.

The Cost of “AI Dominance”

Amazon’s leadership has been transparent about the trade-off. The company is flattening management layers and automating administrative workflows to free up capital for data centers and GPU clusters. With a $100 billion infrastructure plan on the books for the next decade, the company views these 2,400 local roles as a necessary sacrifice to remain competitive against Microsoft and Google. The impacted departments—ranging from entry-level recruiters to directors—highlight a shift away from generalist support toward specialized, technical AI roles.

What’s Next for the Workforce?

Affected employees will receive severance and job placement services, but the local market may struggle to absorb such a high volume of tech talent simultaneously. This “execution update” serves as a stark reminder that the theoretical “AI Pivot” discussed in boardrooms last year is now a reality showing up in unemployment filings.