Amazon now has 1 million robots
Amazon is growing its fleet of warehouse robots and investing in new AI tech to make them more efficient
Joseph Prezioso /AFP via Getty
Amazon now has an army of one million robots sailing through its fulfillment centers, making it the world’s largest operator of mobile robotics.
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The e-commerce giant, which has more than 300 facilities worldwide, recently added its one millionth robot in Japan, according to a Monday press release.
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Not only is Amazon growing its fleet of robots, but the company says it's also using AI to optimize them. The company introduced a new generative AI model that coordinates robot traffic to improve fulfillment speed and efficiency. The technology, called DeepFleet, apparently reduces robot travel time by 10%.
“DeepFleet coordinates our robots' movements to optimize how they navigate our fulfillment centers,” Amazon’s robotics lead Scott Dresser said in a prepared statement. “This means less congestion, more efficient paths, and faster processing of customer orders.”
Soon, robots could outnumber the amount of workers employed in its fulfillment centers. Nearly 75% of Amazon’s global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company is rapidly scaling its warehouse robotics while its worker turnover rate sits at twice the industry average, according to the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group.
Amazon has argued that its robotics and AI investments will create job opportunities. For example, while a new fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana uses ten times as many robotics as other facilities, it also requires 30% more employees to fill reliability, maintenance, and engineering roles, the company said.
However, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made it clear that AI will replace some jobs. In June, the executive told employees in a memo that the company will need fewer employees in some roles and more in others.
He echoed this stance on Monday in an interview with CNBC. “Like with every technical transformation, there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that the technology actually starts to automate,” Jassy said. “But there’s going to be other jobs.”