Bezos says AI will create labour shortages, not replace workers

Jeff Bezos said artificial intelligence will create labour shortages, not replace workers, putting a sharply optimistic case for automation before a public already anxious about losing jobs. The Amazon founder made the remarks in Paris at VivaTech, where he argued that AI will lower barriers and increase demand for human labour.

Bezos spoke on the Theater stage at VivaTech’s 10th edition alongside Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp, in a session moderated by astronaut Mike Massimino. The appearance came as Bezos has taken on a new role in the AI race, serving as co-founder and co-chief executive of Prometheus, a physical-AI startup focused on advanced manufacturing and industrial systems.

Prometheus has become one of the most closely watched parts of Bezos’s expanding business portfolio. The company says it aims to build an “artificial general engineer” for the physical world, a pitch that points to AI systems designed not just to generate text or images but to help run factories, production lines and other industrial operations. Coverage around June 11 said Prometheus had raised $12 billion in Series B funding at a $41 billion valuation.

The scale of that funding underscores how aggressively investors are backing AI tied to physical production, even as workers worry about displacement. A six-day Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found that 53% of Americans feared AI could put them or someone in their household out of work. The same survey found 73% were worried about increased use of AI, with the concern spread fairly evenly across age, gender and education levels.

That gap between executive optimism and public unease is likely to draw close attention from workers, labour economists and policymakers trying to understand whether AI will actually create enough new jobs to offset the ones it changes or eliminates. Bezos’s argument rests on the idea that lower costs and easier access will expand demand fast enough to leave employers short of people, not the other way around.

For now, the evidence on the ground remains mixed, with companies promising productivity gains while households worry about job security. Bezos’s comments place him squarely in the camp betting that AI will expand the labour market, but the broader public still appears far more focused on who gets left out.