Jeff Bezos said artificial intelligence could let some workers support families on a three-day workweek, the same week Amazon cut fewer than 1,000 jobs after eliminating about 30,000.
Key Points:
- Bezos said AI productivity gains could create a labor shortage, not mass unemployment.
- Amazon confirmed it cut a small number of roles in its Stores business.
- The company has eliminated about 30,000 corporate jobs since October 2025.
Bezos Workweek Forecast
Bezos, Amazon's founder and executive chairman, told anchor Bret Baier in a wide-ranging television interview aired Wednesday that AI-driven productivity gains could let some families live on one income. Others, he said, will decide "I can support my family by working three days a week," and choose to work less. "That's what productivity in the economy means," he added.
The billionaire argued those gains would produce a labor shortage instead of mass unemployment, because people who do not want a second job would no longer need one. "It's going to actually be difficult to hire people," he said.
The interview aired as Amazon laid off hundreds of employees this week in its Stores business, which runs its main e-commerce site, during its Prime Big Deal Days sales event.
People familiar with the matter put the total below 1,000, across customer service, selling partner support and retail engineering teams in the United States, India and Britain. Amazon said only that it had eliminated "a small number of roles."
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Amazon Layoffs Questioned
Baier pressed Bezos on that contrast. He cited the roughly 30,000 corporate jobs Amazon has cut since late last year.
Bezos answered that Amazon was in a "very special position" after it substantially expanded its workforce when customers stuck at home drove a surge in orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The whole team worked extremely hard and did so much, but we really grew our headcount," he said. He acknowledged public fears about AI's effect on jobs but said he disagreed with those predicting a more troubling outcome.
Bezos has his own stake in the technology as co-founder and co-CEO of Project Prometheus, an AI startup building tools to help engineers design and manufacture physical products. He forecast "double digit productivity gains" across the economy and urged a "light hand" on regulation, saying, "You don't want to regulate knives, you want to regulate murder."
Amazon eliminated about 30,000 corporate positions in two earlier rounds, 14,000 in October 2025 and 16,000 in January, the largest workforce reduction in the company's history. Those cuts amounted to about 10% of its corporate staff, though only a small share of its nearly 1.6 million employees overall. Smaller reductions have followed, including in its robotics and artificial general intelligence groups.
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