AI will create more jobs for humans, not replace them, Amazon founder Bezos says
Billionaire entrepreneur predicts AI will trigger labour shortages, not mass unemployment, as he unveils his new AI venture Prometheus at VivaTech Paris.PARIS — In a bold and characteristically optimistic address at Europe's largest tech expo VivaTech Paris on Wednesday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos pushed back against growing fears that artificial intelligence will decimate the workforce, arguing instead that the technology will create a labour shortage and unlock more opportunities for human workers than it displaces.
"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 told the audience, seated alongside Blue Origin CEO David Limp. "I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labour shortage."
The remarks come at a time of heightened anxiety over AI's impact on employment. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published this month found that half of Americans fear the rise of AI could put them or someone in their household out of work. Meanwhile, U.S.-based employers announced 97,006 job cuts in May—the highest total for that month since 2020, with AI cited as a leading factor.
But Bezos, whose net worth is estimated at around $250 billion making him the world's fourth-richest individual, remains undeterred. He argued that humans have "endless" things they want to accomplish and are currently held back only by barriers that AI will help lower. Remove those constraints, he said, and demand for human labour will only grow.
History, Bezos suggested, is on his side. "At root, all civilisational wealth is driven by invention. Six thousand years ago, somebody invented the plough, and we all got wealthier," he said, drawing a parallel between past technological breakthroughs and the AI revolution. Each industrial revolution, he noted, ultimately expanded economies and created new forms of work rather than eliminating them.
The billionaire also addressed the mechanics of this transformation directly. While AI may reduce the number of people needed for certain existing tasks—"even though you're shrinking the number of people needed by 10x," he acknowledged—it will create "more than 10x" as many new opportunities. Lower costs and faster innovation, he argued, will generate entirely new industries and demand for workers.
Bezos's optimism is echoed by broader data. According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, AI and digitalization are expected to create 170 million new jobs globally by 2030, while displacing 92 million—resulting in a net gain of 78 million roles. The same report found that 85% of employers plan to offer upskilling programmes and 77% intend to provide AI training to address the coming skills gap.
The occasion also served as a platform for Bezos's newest venture. He spoke at length about Prometheus, the AI company he co-founded and personally leads—his first formal operational role since stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021. Valued at around $41 billion and backed by investors including JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock, Prometheus has reportedly raised $12 billion to date.
Unlike many AI companies focused on chatbots and digital tasks, Prometheus is building what Bezos calls an "artificial general engineer" —an AI system trained on real-world engineering and manufacturing data that can help design complex physical products ranging from jet engines to medical devices. The goal, Bezos explained, is to "empower engineers and make invention easier and faster, so smaller teams can do much bigger things on much shorter time cycles".
Speaking to the Financial Times ahead of the conference, Bezos was unequivocal: "The people who are jumping to the conclusion that the jobs are all going to go away ... I think these people are just wrong". He described the coming decade as one of "multiple golden ages" driven by advances in AI, space exploration and biotechnology.
The appearance wasn't all about AI. Bezos also used the VivaTech stage to outline his long-term vision for space exploration through Blue Origin, reaffirming his commitment to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon. "We're going to the Moon to stay, not just to visit," he told the audience.
For workers worried about their place in an AI-driven future, Bezos's message was clear: the machine isn't coming for your job—it's coming to give you more of them.
