Artificial intelligence will create a shortage of workers rather than make humans redundant, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said amid growing concerns that AI will take away millions of jobs.
Speaking at the VivaTech technology conference in Paris, Bezos presented an optimistic vision of the future and argued that artificial intelligence will unlock new opportunities by helping people solve more problems and remove barriers that limit productivity, reported Reuters.
“I know there’s a lot of concern that many people have, including many smart people, that AI is going to make humans redundant and so on,” Bezos said. “I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labor shortage,” he added.
Bezos made the remarks at a time when businesses around the world are rapidly adopting AI tools and restructuring their workforces. Companies, especially in the technology sector, have cut thousands of jobs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence systems that automate tasks and improve efficiency.
Why does Bezos believe AI will create more work?
The Amazon founder said that human needs and ambitions are virtually endless. According to him, people often fail to pursue many ideas because they lack time, resources or capabilities. He said artificial intelligence could remove many of these obstacles and enable people to take on more projects and create entirely new industries, reported Reuters.
“People have endless things to do,” Bezos said. He said that AI will make it easier to identify and solve problems that currently remain unaddressed, reported Reuters.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this month found that nearly half of Americans fear that artificial intelligence could put them or someone in their household out of work.
According to a report by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, US-based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May, with artificial intelligence linked to 40 per cent of those layoffs.
The backlash against AI has emerged across industries and age groups. Young professionals entering the job market have raised concerns about shrinking opportunities. Labour unions at South Korean carmakers have objected to automation plans, while Hollywood writers and performers have also voiced fears about AI replacing creative jobs, reported Reuters.
Amazon layoffs
Amazon itself has reduced its workforce in recent years. The company has cut around 30,000 corporate roles since late 2025, partly because of efficiency gains made possible by artificial intelligence, reported Reuters.
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said that the company’s growing use of automation and AI tools would lead to job losses in some corporate functions.
Despite these developments, Bezos says that artificial intelligence would ultimately expand economic activity rather than shrink it.
The world’s fourth-richest person also used the conference to discuss his long-term vision for space exploration. Bezos spoke about projects being developed by his space company Blue Origin and his new AI startup Prometheus, which aims to accelerate physical manufacturing through artificial intelligence.
One of his most ambitious ideas involves moving polluting industries away from Earth. “If space travel gets reliable enough and inexpensive enough, and we can get materials from asteroids and near-Earth objects and the moon, then this garden planet can be returned to its pre-Industrial Revolution state,” Bezos said.
Bezos appeared alongside Blue Origin chief executive David Limp, who said reconstruction work has begun on the company’s launch pad in Florida after an explosion damaged the site in May.
Bezos’ Blue Origin is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which recently completed a record-breaking initial public offering. Musk has spoken about building cities on the Moon and Mars and even suggested that AI data centres could one day operate in space, reported Reuters.