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

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Colin Laidley

Full Bio Colin is an Associate Editor focused on tech and financial news. He has more than three years of experience editing, proofreading, and fact-checking content on current financial events and politics. He received his M.A. in journalism from The New School and his B.A. in history and political science from McGill University.

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Published May 20, 2026

03:14 PM EDT

Jeff Bezos (pictured) said that workers will use AI to operate at a higher level to solve problems. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Wednesday predicted that AI, by making workers more productive, will eventually lead to labor shortages and even deflation.
• Executives are generally optimistic about AI's potential to stimulate job growth, but the rank-and-file, especially recent college graduates, are increasingly anxious it will have the opposite effect.

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.”1

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%).2

Why This Is Important

Throughout history workers have feared permanent displacement by new technologies, only to find that industries adapt and create new jobs in the process. Many tech leaders argue AI is no different. Still, workers and AI skeptics fear displacement by a technology that, unlike the steam engine or lightbulb, is being trained to learn like a human.

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.3

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.4

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%).5

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.6

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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.3

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Get personalized, AI-powered answers built on 27+ years of trusted expertise.

• Which job sectors will thrive in the AI era?
• What advice is given to younger workers facing AI-driven job market changes?
• How will AI change the nature of existing jobs?

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Article Sources

Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.

1. CNBC. “Jeff Bezos: AI productivity gains could lead to labor shortages and deflation.”
2. Pew Research. “How the U.S. Public and AI Experts View Artificial Intelligence.”
3. Strada. “Entry-Level Hiring in the AI Era.”
4. Goldman Sachs. “How Will AI Affect the Global Workforce?”
5. Gallup. “Young Americans' Job Market Pessimism Stands Out Globally.”
6. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates.”

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