While some leaders warn of mass unemployment, Bezos predicts productivity gains could let people work less without sacrificing their ability to support a family.

AI leaders, including two of Anthropic’s co-founders, have cautioned that AI could rapidly replace human jobs, leading to mass unemployment. Now Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is outlining a different future, where AI leads to human labor shortages instead. 

In an interview earlier this week with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Bezos predicted that AI-driven productivity gains could eventually reshape the economics of family life.

“You’re not going to need to have a two-earner income household,” Bezos said. He predicted a future in which AI would allow for one salary to support a family.

Bezos also suggested that AI could change how much time people need to spend earning a living. If the technology delivers the productivity gains he expects, workers could make enough money to avoid the traditional five-day week.

“Some people will also decide, you know what, I can support my family working three days a week,” Bezos said. “That’s what productivity in the economy means.”

Bezos predicted that AI’s productivity gains could allow more people to opt out of the workforce, leaving employers with a smaller pool of candidates to recruit.

“It’s going to actually be difficult to hire people because the productivity in the economy is going to make it so that if people don’t want to work two jobs, they won’t have to,” he said. 

Bezos is not alone in envisioning a future where employees work less because of AI.

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