Jeff Bezos dismisses AI job fears, predicts labor shortage as tech reshapes work

Jeff Bezos Lectures the Public, Saying They Should Be Grateful for the Wonders of AI

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Feeling grateful for all the wonderful ways AI has changed your life yet? Jeff Bezos thinks you should be. On Wednesday, the Amazon founder brushed aside fears that AI would replace people's jobs, arguing instead that it will instead be a magical tool that will supercharge productivity and make everyone's work easier. The luddite masses just haven't realized it yet. "If you've been digging out a basement for your house with a shovel and somebody's about to hand you a bulldozer, you should be so happy!" Bezos said in an interview with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC's "Squawk Box," appearing more disheveled than usual. "What's really going to happen is that we're going to have so much productivity in our economy," he added, arguing that prices will go down and people will feel comfortable to quit their jobs. Only there's a convenient catch: "Assuming we let this technology play out, and don't hamstring it with regulation too early," Bezos said. Bezos, who founded his own AI startup last year, was addressing the recent viral videos of graduating college students booing and shouting down commencement speakers who praised AI. Sorkin commented that this was a sign that the students were "deeply fearful and worried" about the tech's impact on their job prospects. But in the billionaire's enlightened opinion, the youths were misled by fearmongering. "The reason they're afraid of that is because all these smart people keep saying that," Bezos said. "And they're saying, 'oh my god, there's going to be no more radiologists because AI can read x-rays better than a radiologist can. And there's going to be no more software engineers because AI can program better than a software engineer can.'" "These people are wrong!" Bezos declared. It's still up for debate whether AI will truly start automating vast swathes of the workforce in the long run. The tools are still unreliable and expensive to deploy, and embracing them can backfire. But many big employers -- however ostensibly -- are justifying their huge job cuts by pointing to AI, adding to the atmosphere of uncertainty. Jack Dorsey cited efficiency gains from AI as he laid off 4,000 employees at his fintech company Block, or 40 percent of its global workforce. In an even bigger bloodbath, Meta is laying off 8,000 employees while forcing software engineers to use AI agents as much as possible to crank out more code, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg openly bragging about how the tech enables projects that used to require "big teams" to instead be finished by a single person. When Sorkin asked Bezos to address these job cuts, Bezos floundered. What about Amazon's recent layoffs that wiped out a staggering 30,000 jobs? "That's not because of AI!" Bezos snapped, sounding indignant at Sorkin's suggestion that AI fueled cuts at Block and Meta as well. Sorkin pressed that Dorsey had explicitly touted AI as behind the job cuts. "You'd have to ask Jack about that," Bezos said. "I don't know, he must have had a lot of extra people," he added, laughing.

Worried About AI Taking Your Job? Jeff Bezos Says You're Thinking About It All Wrong And Should 'Be So Happy'

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a simple message for workers uneasy about AI's rise: Stay optimistic. As AI reshapes work and challenges how employees see their roles, Bezos suggests that there is more reason for confidence than concern. "If you've been digging out a basement for your house with a shovel and somebody's about to hand you a bulldozer, you should be so happy," Bezos said in an interview with CNBC at Blue Origin's Florida launch site earlier this week. On a broad scale, AI is going to "elevate" people, Bezos predicted. "We are going to have so much productivity in our economy," he added. Bezos said that if we allow AI to develop without being "hamstrung," it could make life more comfortable for everyone. In his view, powerful technology could drive costs down across the board, leading to cheaper groceries and more affordable homes. Bezos imagines a world where productivity gains from AI show up as deflation instead of higher prices. People's money stretches further, and their standard of living rises. Other influential voices have a different message, warning that AI could trigger major job losses and economic disruption. Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize winner often called the Godfather of AI because of his early research on neural networks and major discoveries in deep learning, is one figure sounding the alarm. Last year, Hinton predicted that AI would replace "everybody" in white-collar jobs. He also challenged the idea that AI would create new jobs and argued that if AI automated tasks, people would have few occupations left to pursue. "You'd have to be very skilled to have a job that it [AI] just couldn't do," Hinton said. Another AI leader issuing a warning is Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Last year, he predicted that AI would wipe out half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within the next five years, causing unemployment to rise to 20%. "As with most things, when an exponential is moving very quickly, you can't be sure," Amodei said at a summit in September. "I think it is likely enough to happen that we felt there was a need to warn the world about it and to speak honestly." Roman Yampolskiy, a computer science professor at the University of Louisville, had an even more dire prediction. He warned last year that AI could cause the unemployment of "99%" of all workers by 2030. "You have free labor, physical and cognitive, trillions of dollars of it," Yampolskiy said on The Diary of a CEO podcast in September. "It makes no sense to hire humans for most jobs if I can just get a $20 subscription or a free model to do what an employee does."

Jeff Bezos Says AI Will Elevate Jobs, Not Eliminate Them. Work With a 'Bulldozer Instead of a Shovel'

Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise. AI is going to transform the labor market, but not the way people think, according to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos, in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, dismissed warnings that AI would replace skilled professionals like radiologists or software engineers. "What's really gonna happen is it's gonna elevate all of these people," said Bezos. "The analogy I give to you is, you've been digging out the basement of your house with a shovel and somebody's about to hand you a bulldozer." Americans are deeply divided in their assessments of AI's impact on the workplace. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults polled in 2024 predicted that AI would lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years, compared with 39% among AI experts, defined as "individuals whose work or research relates to AI." Experts were four times as likely as the general public to predict AI will create more jobs than it eliminates (19% vs. 5%). Business leaders such as Bezos are overwhelmingly optimistic about the availability of jobs in the AI era. Forty-seven percent of executives and senior human resources professionals said AI use increased entry-level hiring at their firm last year, compared with 13% who said it decreased hiring, according to a recent survey from Strada Education Foundation. Employers were only slightly less optimistic about this year, with 46% predicting an increase in hiring and 17% predicting a decline. Bezos on Wednesday went as far as predicting the proliferation of AI in workplaces would actually cause a labor shortage. "We're gonna have so much productivity in our economy that, for example, this is one effect, a lot of people who have two-earner income households, one of the people is gonna drop out of the workforce," he said. AI-driven productivity gains, he said, should allow companies to do more with less, driving down prices in the process. "I predict we'll actually have deflation," Bezos said. "Because of the productivity gains, you're going to be able to afford things." Historically, unemployment driven by technological change has tended to be temporary, with displaced workers eventually finding jobs in new fields. According to Goldman Sachs economists, about 60% of U.S. workers are currently in positions that didn't exist in 1940, suggesting 85% of all employment growth since then may be attributed to jobs birthed by new technologies. Spikes in unemployment stemming from new technologies tend to fade within two years, the economists found. Still, anxiety about being replaced by AI is growing, especially among younger workers. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, was booed when he mentioned AI during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona over the weekend. The share of Americans under age 35 saying now is a good time to find a job declined by 27 percentage points between 2023 and 2025 (70% vs. 43%), compared with just 6 points among those aged 55 and up (70% to 64%). Employment data lends credence to that anxiety. The unemployment rate among recent college graduates increased by 1.5 percentage points between November 2022, when ChatGPT turned generative AI into front-page news, and March 2026. Over that same period, the rate for all young workers ticked up 0.1 percentage point. The job market has become particularly difficult for recent college graduates in industries with the greatest AI exposure. Major tech companies have shed tens of thousands of jobs over the past year, frequently citing AI's impact on productivity and the need to free up cash for AI investments. As of 2024, the most recent data set available, new computer engineering grads were unemployed at a higher rate than fine arts majors (7.8% vs. 7.7%). Long-term, Bezos expects AI adoption to streamline drudge work, leaving humans more time to focus on strategy, problem-solving, and creativity. A software engineer's "real job is gonna be identifying problems and helping to solve them," rather than writing code line-by-line, he said. "The work is gonna be done at a higher level," Bezos said. "It's gonna be done with a bulldozer instead of a shovel, and that's gonna be a good thing." Business leaders say this is already happening. Forty-two percent of individuals surveyed by Strada said AI tools had increased the analytical and judgment-based responsibilities of entry-level employees, and 33% said it had reduced routine tasks.

Jeff Bezos rejects AI-induced job-loss fears, says the technology will 'elevate' workers - The Economic Times

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has dismissed growing concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) will wipe out jobs, arguing instead that the technology will help workers become more productive and strengthen the wider economy. Speaking during an interview with CNBC, Bezos said he believes AI will eventually create a labour shortage rather than mass unemployment. According to the Amazon founder, fears around job losses are being fuelled by "smart" people repeatedly claiming that AI will replace entire professions. Bezos pointed to examples often raised in discussions around automation, such as radiologists being replaced because AI can analyse X-rays more accurately, or software engineers becoming unnecessary because AI tools can write code. He rejected those claims outright. "They are wrong," he said, "What's really going to happen is that it's going to elevate all of these people." 'Software engineers will still matter' Using software engineering as an example, Bezos explained that coding is only one part of the job. He said the more important responsibility is identifying problems and designing solutions. In Bezos' view, AI may handle parts of execution, but humans will continue to lead the thinking behind systems and products. "That's the kind of thing that humans are going to be good at... And they're going to work with that tool to build the system," he said. "It's just that the work is going to be done at a higher level," Bezos added. "It's going to be done with a bulldozer instead of a shovel, and that's going to be a good thing." Bezos also predicted that AI could significantly improve productivity across industries. However, he stressed that it will happen only if "we let this technology play out and don't hamstring it with regulation too early." Layoffs continue across tech companies The Amazon founder's comments come as public concern around AI has increased due to job cuts in recent months across technology companies. Questioned about recent layoffs at Amazon, Bezos said those job cuts were not caused by AI. However, during its recent layoffs, the company acknowledged that some of its latest layoffs are connected to operational changes driven by AI and automation. There has been a wave of layoffs in major companies, including Block, Coinbase and Meta, as businesses focus on efficiency and cost reduction. While Meta denied its cuts were linked to AI, Block, led by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, openly said that "intelligence tools" were a major factor behind its workforce reductions. Dorsey also suggested that many other companies are likely to follow a similar path. Additionally, AI coding platforms developed by companies such as Anthropic and Cursor have also increased concerns among software engineers and programmers about possible job displacement.

Jeff Bezos Says AI Isn't Taking All The Jobs: 'There's Going To Be A Labor Shortage' - Amazon.com (NASDAQ

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos doesn't see an AI bubble forming yet and was quick to dismiss the notion that AI will take everyone's jobs during a recent interview. Job Cuts Vs. Labor Shortage The rise of artificial intelligence use cases and productivity has led to outcry that jobs could be replaced, putting thousands of people out of work. In an interview with CNBC, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos argued that people shouldn't be worried about losing their job to AI. "It's going to elevate all of these people," Bezos told CNBC. The billionaire said that smart people keep saying people are going to lose their jobs to AI, including software engineers and radiologists. "These people are wrong." Bezos is not only predicting that some experts predicting job cuts and people out of work due to AI will be wrong, he's predicting the direct opposite will happen. "I think there's going to be a labor shortage." Bezos argued that food will get cheaper, housing will get cheaper and there will be "so much productivity in the economy." As a result, households that have two income earners currently will likely see one person drop out of the workforce, Bezos predicts. Asked about Amazon laying off workers due to AI, Bezos argued that there have not been any AI-related layoffs. Amazon is investing heavily in AI and robotics, with some concerned that robotics investments will lead to fewer workers needed as new advanced factories are opened. AI Not A Bubble Yet As investment in AI from major companies like Amazon grows and valuations of private AI-related companies hit sky-high ranges, there are concerns that a bubble is forming for the sector. Bezos isn't concerned yet. "Even if it does turn out to be a bubble, you shouldn't worry about it because the bubble is driving investment and a lot of the investment is going to turn out to be very healthy," Bezos told CNBC. Bezos said the investments will push AI forward, meaning "every experiment is getting funded." Bezos said while this means that some bad ideas are getting funded, great new ideas are also getting funded that will have lasting use cases even when and if the AI bubble pops. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.