Amazon Courts Laid-Off Workers for AI and Cloud Roles Amid Record Layoffs

Amazon is actively courting former employees to fill open positions in its cloud-computing and AI divisions. The company is reaching out to those it laid off over the past year, including approximately 14,000 workers cut from corporate jobs in October 2025. In some cases, recruiters are offering a faster path back to a job offer or asking whether the return-to-office mandate drove them away.

The outreach reflects Amazon's urgency in securing AI talent as it competes with major players like Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic. A message from AWS Vice President Swami Sivasubramanian invited former workers with machine learning backgrounds to discuss new roles through the 'Swami's Boomerang Reengagement Initiative.'

AWS Finance recruiter also asked a former employee about their departure, citing Amazon's five-day in-office policy as a potential reason. The recruiter stated that answering this question would help tailor future outreach to the worker's remote-work and location preferences.