Amazon is planning to cut as many as 14,000 corporate jobs, according to a memo sent to staff.

The figure represents just 5% of the e-commerce giant’s 1.55 million employees and will be the largest job cuts since 2022, when the firm slashed around 27,000 positions.

The redundancies will begin this week and the departments affected include HR, operations, devices and services and Amazon Web Services (AWD), Reuters reported.

Job losses at AWS could have a knock on effect on bookmakers, in theory, due to various operators maintaining partnerships with Amazon’s subsidiary, such as BetMGM, William Hill and FanDuel – though plans to mitigate any impacts are likely in place.

Beth Galetti, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, said in the memo: “Some may ask why we’re reducing roles when the company is performing well. Across our businesses, we’re delivering great customer experiences every day, innovating at a rapid rate, and producing strong business results.

“What we need to remember is that the world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before

“[…] We’re convinced that we need to be organised more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”

The move comes following Amazon CEO Andy Jassey’s comments in June on how he wants the company to “operate like the world’s largest start-up” and AI is a key part of that. This will inevitably lead to some positions becoming redundant, he said.

“As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.

“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” he told employees.

Betting and gaming, like countless other industries, is also making more and more use out of AI technology. Earlier this year, LiveScore Group, operator of the LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet brands, partnered with social media platform X to make use of the firm’s AI tech, for example.