Amazon cut 250 software development jobs on Wednesday after issuing new AI guidelines for engineers. A spokesperson said, "We've made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles." The company wants staff to use AI for customer problems rather than just boosting stats to stay ahead today.

The job cuts mainly impact software development roles. "We've made the ​difficult decision to eliminate a small number ⁠of roles," a company spokesperson said without giving further details.

The spokesperson added that the layoffs will help the tech giant "operate more efficiently and better align with our product roadmap". On the same day, Amazon announced another set of products, including a new alarm clock and a photo frame powered by Alexa voice assistant.

Employees were apprised of the job cuts via text messages and emails sent early Wednesday morning. One such message accessed by Reuters was from Cherie Robinson, a human resources vice president in devices and services. Robinson said that the company underwent "a thorough review of our structure" leading to the job cuts.

Amazon urges engineers to embrace AI, warns against falling behind

A day before announcing the job cuts, Amazon published an internal memo from September that was sent to software engineers. In this memo, Amazon shared updated guidelines for its Software Development Engineers (SDEs), urging them to use AI to solve real customer problems instead of boosting their usage stats.

“We all need to embrace this change and take the time to learn, or we risk being left behind,” the memo said. The company said that token consumption, AI adoption rates and code changes do not necessarily signal productivity while potentially increasing costs and adding unnecessary complexity.

Amazon's latest cuts follow thousands of job losses

Earlier this month, Amazon laid off 1,000 people, mainly in its Stores unit which oversees the main e-commerce website. The job cuts coincided with Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days.

The cuts were the latest in a series of a job reductions since the company slashed 30,000 jobs as part of job cuts that began last year and continued into January. In January, the company announced 16,000 job cuts after laying off 14,000 people in October last year.