Amazon founder Jeff Bezos argued this week that artificial intelligence will not replace workers on a mass scale, but could instead create labor shortages. He made the comments on Wednesday at the VivaTech conference in Paris, at a time when many in the tech sector are worried about layoffs and companies are increasingly citing AI as a reason for cuts, role mergers, and workforce restructuring.
Bezos said the basic mistake in the AI debate is assuming that every technological improvement reduces the need for people. In his view, AI removes bottlenecks, speeds up processes, and makes it easier to turn more ideas into real products, services, and companies. He summed it up as, “not less work, but more work,” arguing that if more people can build, develop, produce, and test ideas faster, more jobs will be created around them.
He also used the conference to discuss Prometheus, his new AI venture, which he said is designed to accelerate physical manufacturing processes and could reshape engineering, production, space, and industry. His remarks came as the number of layoffs linked to AI continues to rise in the near term.
Reuters reported that according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S. employers announced 97,006 layoffs in May 2026, the highest May total since 2020. AI was cited as the cause for 38,579 of those jobs, about 40% of all cuts that month, and the third straight month in which AI topped the list of layoff reasons. The contrast, the article said, is between a long-term vision of new opportunities and a short-term reality in which teams are shrinking, jobs are being consolidated, and junior roles are disappearing.
