Artificial intelligence will lead to an increase in demand for human labour rather than make workers redundant, Amazon found Jeff Bezos said at a technology conference in Paris while pushing back against growing fears that AI will displace large numbers of workers.
Bezos claimed that the technology will unlock new opportunities and increase demand for human labour, painting an optimistic picture of AI's future role in society.
"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. I totally disagree with this point of view. And I think, in fact, AI is going to create a labour shortage," he said, as quoted by BBC.
He suggested that people are limited not by a lack of ambition but by barriers that technology can help remove. Bezos was speaking about his new AI venture Prometheus, which is focused on accelerating physical manufacturing, a sector becoming increasingly automated.
Bezos' comments sit awkwardly against the recent track record of the company he founded. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has repeatedly said AI will shrink the company's corporate workforce, writing that Amazon will need "fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today" as it captures efficiency gains from AI.
Those warnings have already translated into action: Amazon cut 16,000 jobs in January 2026, just three months after letting go of 14,000 corporate employees in October, taking cumulative reductions to more than 300,000 over the past few years.
The cuts have coincided with a sharp ramp-up in AI investment, with the company projecting capital expenditure of around $125 billion for 2026.
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