Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says AI will create a labour shortage and increase demand for human workers.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has dismissed concerns that artificial intelligence will replace large numbers of workers, insisting instead that the technology will increase demand for human labour and create new employment opportunities.
Speaking at the VivaTech technology conference in Paris, Bezos argued that AI would not make people redundant but would help remove barriers that currently limit human productivity and innovation.
“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 labour shortage.”
His comments come amid growing debate over the impact of AI on jobs, with some political and technology leaders warning that rapid advances in artificial intelligence could threaten employment prospects, particularly for younger workers.
Bezos, however, painted a more optimistic picture, arguing that technological progress would generate new opportunities and increase the need for workers rather than reduce it.
The billionaire entrepreneur was speaking about Prometheus, his new AI venture focused on accelerating physical manufacturing, a sector that is becoming increasingly automated.
While concerns over job displacement persist, the UK’s Trades Union Congress has previously warned that AI technology could repeat “the disaster of deindustrialisation” if the benefits flow primarily to shareholders while jobs are “degraded or displaced”. The organisation has also acknowledged that AI could deliver significant benefits for workers if developed responsibly and accompanied by productivity gains.
Beyond artificial intelligence, Bezos outlined his vision for humanity’s future in space, describing access to space as the key constraint on further development.
He said the Moon would serve as a natural starting point for long-term human expansion beyond Earth due to its proximity and available resources.
“We’re going to the Moon to stay, not just to visit,” Bezos told the audience.
He added that technologies such as electrolysis could eventually enable lunar resources to be used for refuelling rockets and supporting a permanent human presence beyond Earth.
The discussion also touched on Blue Origin, Bezos’ space exploration company, which suffered a setback in May when an uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a ground test at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Reflecting on the incident, Bezos said: “It was a gut punch for the whole team. But what we’ve learned since then is we got really lucky.”
No injuries were reported following the explosion, and Bezos noted that several critical launch systems survived, allowing recovery efforts to move forward more quickly than initially expected.
Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp told the conference that reconstruction work is already underway and that launches are expected to resume before the end of the year.
The company is competing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to establish a leading position in commercial spaceflight and lunar exploration, as demand grows for extraterrestrial infrastructure.