What if artificial intelligence allowed us to work only three days a week? This is the future imagined by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and one of the richest men on the planet. In an interview with the American channel Fox News, the billionaire takes the opposite view of the alarmist speeches on the consequences of AI for employment.
While nearly one in two people in Switzerland fear losing their job because of this technology, Jeff Bezos believes, on the contrary, that employees could be the big beneficiaries of this revolution.
He said artificial intelligence could lead to double-digit productivity gains across the economy. Companies would thus be able to produce more with fewer working hours.
Possible consequence: some families could choose to reduce their professional activity without sacrificing their standard of living. Others might even be satisfied with a single salary, allowing one parent to devote more time to the children.
Towards a labor shortage?
Jeff Bezos goes so far as to envisage a labor shortage, not because companies would cut jobs, but because more people could afford to work less.
“It will indeed be difficult to recruit employees,” he predicts, estimating that productivity gains could exempt certain employees from having to hold several jobs.
This optimistic vision, however, raises a contradiction. Asked about the approximately 30,000 job cuts announced by Amazon since last year, Jeff Bezos cites a situation specific to the company.
The online commerce giant had recruited massively during the Covid-19 pandemic, he recalls. The current workforce reductions can therefore be explained in particular by this exceptional growth.
Some observers fear the formation of a speculative bubble, comparable to that of the Internet in the early 2000s.
