Amazon.com Inc. is swiftly increasing the use of robotics, with over 750,000 robots functioning alongside its employees.
There are 1.5 million people at the second-largest private company in the world. Even if it's a large number, it represents a drop of more than 100,000 jobs from the 1.6 million it had in 2021. In the meanwhile, the company employed 200,000 robots in 2019 and 520,000 in 2022. Amazon is gradually cutting back on employees whilst it adds hundreds of thousands of robots annually.
The robots, which include new models such as Sequoia and Digit, are designed to execute repetitive duties, boost productivity, safety, and delivery speed for Amazon customers. Sequoia, for example, speeds inventory management and order processing at delivery centres, whereas Digit, a bipedal robot developed in collaboration with Agility Robotics, handles positions such as transporting empty tote boxes.
Amazon's significant investment in robots illustrates the company's commitment to supply chain innovation as well as its belief in the synergistic potential of human-robot collaboration. Despite the vast amount of automation, Amazon stresses that deploying robots has led to the creation of new skilled job categories at the company, mirroring a larger industry trend of integrating innovative technologies with human workforces.
Amazon's deployment of more than 750,000 robots marks a huge step towards automation at the world's second-largest employer. The move has the potential to drastically alter job dynamics within the organisation and outside. While Amazon claims that robots are designed to collaborate with human employees, assisting them with repetitive chores to increase productivity and workplace safety, concerns about job displacement and the consequences for the workforce are unavoidable.
The tech giant's integration of robots like Sequoia and Digit into its fulfilment centres is part of a larger drive to enhance supply chain operations using innovative technologies. The robots are intended to streamline processes and provide quicker delivery times to customers. The company emphasises that robotic solutions promote workplace safety and enable it to provide a wider range of products for same-day or next-day delivery.
The introduction of so many robots into the workplace raises concerns about the future role of human labour in Amazon's operational paradigm. Many people are concerned about the impact on occupations, particularly highly repetitive tasks that could be easily mechanised. Research from universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that industrial robots have a major detrimental impact on workers, hurting jobs and salaries in the areas where they are deployed. The broader discussion of automation's economic and political ramifications emphasises common concerns about job displacement and the possibility of higher income inequality.
Despite these worries, Amazon has noted the emergence of 700 categories of skilled job kinds that did not previously exist at the company, implying that automation can also result in the creation of new forms of employment prospects. This change in Amazon's workforce may indicate a shift in the nature of labour, with human employees moving towards more complicated, non-repetitive jobs that demand higher levels of ability and creativity.