Amazon is accelerating its multi-billion pound push into warehouse robotics and artificial intelligence, a drive the company says is crucial for future operations but which internal documents suggest could automate hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The technology shift was visible during a public tour of the firm’s large Stone Mountain warehouse in Georgia, USA, which operates as a public relations tool at 28 of its 1,200 US sites. The facility uses several types of robot, including small, Roomba-like machines that move shelves to workers, an automated crane arm that palletises products, and a machine that prints and applies shipping labels.
However, the tour also highlighted enduring tensions around working conditions. Access to bathrooms is a frequent criticism, with delivery and warehouse workers having reported having to urinate in bottles due to a lack of time or access. A tour guest’s request to use a restroom before the tour was denied by security, an experience the company said was not comparable to that of employees, who it stated receive regularly scheduled breaks.
The company’s messaging on job losses has shifted. In 2022, Amazon Robotics’ chief technologist Tye Brady told The Guardian that robotics and AI would not lead to job elimination, citing over a million jobs created in the previous decade. By last June, however, CEO Andy Jassy told corporate staff that AI advancements would reduce the total corporate workforce in the coming years.
Internally, the ambition appears greater. Documents presented to Amazon’s board, as reported by the New York Times, included plans to replace more than 500,000 jobs and avoid hiring 160,000 workers by 2027, with an ultimate goal to automate 75% of its operations. Amazon denied this report, calling the documents misleading.
The company laid off around 14,000 corporate employees in October in anticipation of adopting AI more broadly, and recently announced plans for a further 16,000 cuts. An Amazon spokesperson said AI was not the reason for the “vast majority” of these reductions.
Staff are already witnessing changes. An anonymous picker and stower at a northern Georgia warehouse said human resources at their site had gradually shifted from humans to AI and computers, with a reduced HR staff and an automated texting service now in place.
This worker also claimed Amazon is pushing cross-training, with pickers and stowers learning skills like robot repair in anticipation that their roles may be automated. Amazon stated it is “preparing employees for the roles of the future” in this technological age. The worker suggested one reason for automation is that “people are getting hurt” in manual roles.
Further automation plans are reportedly in development, including “humanoid” robots to deliver packages, potentially replacing drivers. More than 1,000 Amazon workers have signed an open letter warning that the company’s “warp-speed” approach to the technology puts jobs at risk, as described by The Guardian.
