Amazon, one of the most popular companies in the world, is planning on using robots and automated systems in its shipping and delivery centers. According to a report from The New York Times, this decision could affect up to 600,000 jobs in the U.S. in the next few years. The company says its goal isn’t replacing people, but help workers with technology that makes their job easier and safer. Yet, the leaked documents mentioned in the report suggest that Amazon could save as much as $4 billion a year by using automation and reducing the number of human employees. So, let’s learn about this.
Automation at Amazon
When Amazon talks about automation it means smart machines or robots that do tasks people did before. For example, moving packages, organizing boxes, or preparing orders to send them to clients.
According to the report, the company believes with this automation it could save about 30 cents per product sent. This might seem like nothing, but Amazon sends millions or items every day, so the total amount of money saved is huge.
What’s more, the company could avoid hiring 160,000 new workers by 2027 since it’s using robots. If the project grows as it’s expected, Amazon could stop needing more than 600,000 employees in total in the U.S.
Fewer people
The New York Times documents also reveal that the company wants to create almost automated warehouses. This means that robots would do almost all the work, and people would only supervise or maintain specific tasks.
The goal is that up to 75% of the work at warehouses is done by robots. This way orders could be processed faster, and deliveries would arrive earlier to clients.
An Amazon executive explained that, with this strategy, the company expects to double its sales by 2033 and spend less money on hiring and salaries.
Statement about the leaks
After the publishing of the report, Amazon made an official statement about the situation. The company confirmed it’s still hiring people, it even announced it will hire 250,000 temporary workers for the Christmas season, which is the busiest season of the year. What’s more, Amazon presented 2 new projects of robotics and artificial intelligence:
- Blue Jay, a robot designed to move packages faster and more safely.
- Project Eluna, a system created to help employees with repetitive tasks and improve warehouse safety.
According to Tye Brady, the chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, robots can be in charge of the heaviest or most dangerous tasks while humans will focus on more important tasks.
A huge change
Even though Amazon says it wants to help its workers, some financial analysts think the real goal of this change is to reduce costs. The Morgan Stanley bank calculated that, if Amazon replaced its staff with robots, the company could save up to 4,000 million every year.
In a letter to Amazon’s board of directors, CEO Andy Jassy wrote that artificial intelligence will have a huge impact on jobs. He said that in the future, fewer people will be needed to do the same kinds of work, because AI and automation will make operations faster and more efficient. Jassy also predicted that this shift will likely reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce in the coming years.
The future at Amazon
With all these changes, the company is starting a new era when robots and artificial intelligence will be a fundamental part of the business. What’s clear is that the future of working here (and in many other companies) will depend more on technology, robots, and artificial intelligence.
However, the question is: what will happen with employees when machines start doing most of the work?