Jeff Bezos claims AI will ‘create labour shortage’ while Amazon keeps firing thousands

Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) snatch jobs or create jobs? As the debate and uncertainty continue despite thousands of jobs being cut across sectors every now and then, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has claimed that AI will create the need for more human labour.

Ironically, Amazon itself slashed 16,000 jobs in January this year, within three months of sacking 14,000 corporate employees in October 2025. Over the past few years, the company has cut more than 300,000 jobs as it increasingly invested in AI.

Also read: Why Indian graduate students cannot afford to boo at AI

Bezos claimed at a technology conference in Paris that AI technology will unlock new opportunities. “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 was quoted as saying by BBC.

Bezos claimed technology can help remove the barriers that limit people. Ironically, he was speaking about his new project, Prometheus, aimed at speeding up physical manufacturing — a sector rapidly moving towards automation.

Bezos’s comments are totally opposed to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s, who has written that the company will have “fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today” as AI replaces them.