Amazon’s use of AI technology and the growth of its fleet to one million “smarter and more efficient” industrial mobile robots is both tantalizing and a touch terrifying. But, to be truthful, it is not surprising.
In 1954, George Devol filed a patent for a robotic arm that would become the Unimate industrial robot, which would be installed on the assembly line at General Motors in 1961. Amazon’s first robot came on the scene in 2012.
Fast forward to today and you will see robots work alongside employees at Amazon handling heavy lifting and repetitive tasks. Hercules robots can lift and move up to 1,250 pounds of inventory; Pegasus robots use precision conveyor belts to handle individual packages; and Proteus fully autonomous mobile robots traverse the floor.
A new automated guided robot operates on Amazon’s warehouse shelves using DeepFleet, an AI technology that provides a 10 percent increase in efficiency, faster delivery times and lower costs for customers, according to Amazon.
Amazon feeds historical data concerning inventory movement into AWS tools, including the AI-powered Amazon SageMaker, to improve fleet efficiency. Improved logistics allows products to be stored closer to customers, leading to faster delivery and lower costs. An intelligent traffic management system allows the robots to avoid accidents while moving more quickly on the warehouse floor.
The future of automation is upon us, according to Customer Contact Week. “AI and robotics are transforming the modern workplace,” the media group wrote in an article this spring. “Intelligent automation is reshaping job roles, increasing efficiency, and enabling more strategic human contributions across customer support environments, making it essential to the future of work in 2025 and beyond.”
Along with improving profitability, automation may make Amazon’s warehouses a lot safer. In 2022, workers at Amazon facilities sustained nearly 39,000 injuries, and its injury rate was 70 percent higher than the rate at non-Amazon warehouses, according to Warehouse Workers Resource Center. Its serious injury rate (6.6 per 100 workers) was more than double the rate at non-Amazon warehouses (3.2 per 100). In 2023, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited several Amazon warehouses for failing to keep workers safe, exposing them to ergonomic hazards.
On the negative side, automation caused the loss of 1.7 million manufacturing jobs since 2000 in the U.S., according to PatentPC. On average, the addition of one new robot reduces employment by approximately 3.3 workers, according to a 2020 study by Acemoglu and Restrepo. Twenty million more manufacturing jobs could be lost to automation globally by 2030, according to PatentPC.
“The employment impact of robots is predominantly negative in routine manual and blue-collar jobs, because these workers perform tasks that are easily automated by robots, leading to their displacement,” according to the Economic Research Forum.
For its part, Amazon is upskilling employees through training programs that it says prepare its workforce for the future.
“Amazon is particularly proud that since 2019, we’ve helped upskill more than 700,000 employees through various training initiatives, many focused on working with advanced technologies,” a company spokesman said. “Advanced robotics are requiring 30 percent more employees in reliability, maintenance, and engineering roles.”
Amazon is also enhancing its Career Choice education program globally, making it more accessible to employees. Additionally, it is launching new robotics apprenticeship programs in the U.S. equipping its team with the skills needed for AI in the future.
“The technology we’re building does more than move products — it’s transforming workplace safety and creating new career opportunities,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “Through programs like Amazon Career Choice, a prepaid tuition program for front-line employees, we’re helping employees gain the skills needed for technical roles in systems operations and other high-demand fields.”
