Amazon, Microsoft and more: These top firms cited AI for job cuts this year

The job landscape in 2025 has been significantly impacted by layoffs, with numerous prominent companies attributing these cuts to the rise of artificial intelligence. According to the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI has been linked to nearly 55,000 job losses across the United States this year alone. Overall, the total number of job cuts reached 1.17 million, marking the highest level since the pandemic-induced layoffs of 2020, which saw 2.2 million job losses by year-end. In October, U.S. employers announced 153,000 job cuts, with November seeing over 71,000 layoffs, including more than 6,000 attributed to AI. As inflation rises and companies face mounting expenses, many are looking to AI as a quick solution for cost reduction. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicates that AI could perform the tasks of 11.7% of the U.S. workforce, potentially saving around $1.2 trillion in wages across sectors such as finance and healthcare. However, not everyone agrees that AI is solely responsible for these layoffs. Fabian Stephany, an assistant professor of AI and work at the Oxford Internet Institute, has suggested that the layoffs may be more of a market correction after many companies overhired during the pandemic. He proposed that instead of admitting to miscalculations in workforce planning, firms might be using AI as a convenient scapegoat for their staffing decisions. Several major corporations have publicly cited AI as part of their restructuring strategy. Amazon, for instance, has executed its largest round of layoffs ever, eliminating 14,000 corporate positions as it pivots towards investing in AI and other critical areas. Beth Galetti, Amazon’s senior vice president of people experience and technology, emphasized that AI represents a transformative technology that requires a leaner organizational structure to better serve customers. Meanwhile, Microsoft has reduced its workforce by approximately 15,000, with a significant round of cuts announced in July. CEO Satya Nadella expressed the need for the company to evolve its mission in the age of AI, focusing on empowering individuals to create their own tools. Salesforce also confirmed it has cut 4,000 customer support roles, attributing these reductions directly to AI capabilities, while IBM's CEO Arvind Krishna noted that AI chatbots have replaced the jobs of several hundred human resources workers, even as the company seeks talent in areas that require critical thinking. CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, has laid off 5% of its workforce, directly linking these job cuts to AI advancements that streamline operations. Workday also made headlines as one of the first companies in 2025 to announce significant layoffs, prioritizing investment in AI to enhance efficiency and reallocate resources.