Latest news with #Vulcan
Mint
15 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
Amazon's warehouses are now home to over one million robots, matching the number of human employees
Amazon's warehouses are no longer just filled with people, they are now home to nearly as many robots as human workers. If you picture an Amazon warehouse, you might imagine rows of workers rushing to pack orders. These days, though, you'd see something different: robots are everywhere, and the number of machines is catching up to the number of people. According to The Wall Street Journal, Amazon now has over one million robots working in its warehouses, nearly matching its global workforce of about 1.56 million. That's a huge shift from just a decade ago. Robots at Amazon aren't just rolling around for show. They're sorting, picking, and moving items, handling a big chunk of the grunt work. Some, like the Vulcan robot, can pluck products from shelves with surprising precision. Others, like Proteus, glide across the warehouse floor, dodging obstacles and hauling heavy carts to loading docks. Roughly three-quarters of Amazon's global deliveries now involve robotics in some way, so there's a good chance a robot played a part in getting your last order to your door. With so many robots taking over repetitive tasks, Amazon doesn't need as many people on the warehouse floor as it once did. The average number of employees per facility has dropped to about 670, the lowest in 16 years. Meanwhile, each worker is expected to handle far more packages than before, with productivity per employee jumping from 175 packages a year in 2015 to nearly 3,870 last year. Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, has been upfront that as more AI and robotics are rolled out, fewer people will be needed for certain roles going forward. Amazon often points to its efforts to retrain staff, saying more than 700,000 employees have moved into roles like robot technician or system manager. But the reality is not everyone can or wants to make that leap, and the overall demand for traditional warehouse labour is shrinking as automation spreads. For many workers, this shift brings uncertainty about job security and what the future holds, even as the company highlights upskilling programmes. Amazon's move towards automation started in 2012, when it bought Kiva Systems, a company that made robots for moving inventory around warehouses. Since then, robots have become a fixture, with new models and AI systems introduced every year to make warehouses run faster and more efficiently. Now, humans and machines work side by side, but the balance is shifting. Looking ahead, it's clear Amazon will keep doubling down on automation, with robots taking over more routine work. This might mean even faster deliveries for shoppers, but it also means fewer traditional jobs and more pressure on workers to adapt or move on. While Amazon's approach is reshaping warehouse work, it's also raising tough questions about the future of labour in an industry that's changing faster than ever.
Digital Trends
a day ago
- Business
- Digital Trends
The robot takeover comes another step closer — at Amazon
Amazon is close to having more robots operating inside its warehouses than humans after the e-commerce giant announced this week that it now has more than a million robots working at its facilities around the world. Over the years, Amazon has spent billions of dollars on the development and deployment of warehouse-based robots, which handle an array of tasks once performed by human workers. Recommended Videos An estimated 1.1 million humans work at Amazon warehouses globally, suggesting it won't be long before they're outnumbered by robots. 'We've just deployed our one millionth robot, building on our position as the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics,' Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, said in a blog post this week. Dresser added that it's also introducing a new generative AI technology designed to make its fleet of robots smarter and more efficient. The announcement follows Amazon's unveiling in May of its new Vulcan robot, which looks like a game changer due to its ability to pick items and place them onto movable shelves. Vulcan, which is in the early stages of rollout, can operate for up to 20 hours a day, while its stowing speed is said to be a little quicker than the average human. Amazon has always said that its robots complement the warehouse-based human workforce, with the machines performing repetitive, physically demanding and potentially hazardous tasks. But many observers believe that the company is aiming to fully automate its warehouses, a viewpoint that gained momentum just recently when a report by Business Insider disclosed an internal document stating that robots like the new Vulcan machine are 'critical to flattening Amazon's hiring curve over the next ten years.' The company has already admitted that advanced technologies such as AI will mean a reduced corporate workforce, with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy telling employees in a memo last month that that the company's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it deploys more AI in its operations. It's clear that robotics and AI are rapidly reshaping how work gets done in warehouses and beyond, with Amazon's push toward automation indicative of a much broader shift across the industry as companies everywhere embrace new technologies for more efficient operations. As for Amazon's warehouse workers, adapting to new roles alongside robots is becoming the new normal.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon deploys its one millionth robot, releases generative AI model
After 13 years of deploying robots into its warehouses, Amazon reached a new milestone. The tech behemoth now has one million robots in its warehouses, the company announced Monday. This one millionth robot was recently delivered to an Amazon fulfillment facility in Japan. That figure puts Amazon on track to reach another landmark: its vast network of warehouses may soon have the same number of robots working as people, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ also reported that 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are now assisted in some way by a robot. TechCrunch reached out to Amazon for more information. The company also announced it's releasing a new generative AI model called DeepFleet for its warehouse robots. This AI model, which can coordinate the robots' routes within the company's warehouses more efficiently, will help increase the speed of its robotic fleet by 10%, according to Amazon. The company used Amazon Sagemaker — the AWS cloud studio that helps build and deploy AI models — to create DeepFleet. Amazon trained the model on its own warehouse and inventory data. Amazon's one-millionth robot represents more than just a number. The company has improved its fleet of robots in recent years, adding new capabilities and models. In May, the company unveiled its latest robot, Vulcan. This model has two arms, one designed for rearranging inventory, and another with a camera and suction cup to grab items. Most notably, these Vulcan robots have a sense of 'touch' that allows it to feel the items it is grabbing, according to Amazon. In October 2024, the company announced its 'next-generation fulfillment centers' which would include 10x as many robots as their current facilities, in addition to human workers. The first of these new robotic-powered centers opened shortly after in Shreveport, Louisiana, near the state's Texas border. Amazon originally started building up its robotic capabilities back in 2012 alongside its acquisition of Kiva Systems.
Entrepreneur
a day ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Amazon 'Employs' as Many Robots as People in Warehouses
Amazon is now using more than one million robots in its warehouses, the most it has ever deployed, and there are now nearly as many robots in Amazon facilities as there are people, according to The Wall Street Journal. Robots assist in a variety of functions, ranging from sorting items to packaging them for shipment. For example, a new robot named Vulcan can select products from different shelves to be packaged. Amazon told the WSJ that 75% of its global deliveries, or three in four packages, are facilitated in some way by robotics. Related: Amazon Tells Thousands of Employees to Relocate or Resign As Amazon relies more on robots for order fulfillment, it needs fewer human employees on staff. Amazon employs about 1.56 million people, with most working in warehouses. According to a WSJ analysis, the average number of employees per Amazon facility dropped to 670 people per warehouse last year, the lowest count in the past 16 years. It also found that Amazon employees are now more productive than they were a decade ago — the number of packages shipped per employee has skyrocketed from 175 in 2015 to about 3,870 last year. Amazon leadership confirmed that the company is using AI to improve operations in its warehouses and potentially cut down its number of employees. In a memo to employees sent last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that the company was "using AI to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots." Related: Amazon Is Expanding Same-Day Delivery to Thousands of Small Towns and Rural Areas Jassy wrote that as Amazon rolls out more AI features to its robots, the company "will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today," which will "reduce" Amazon's workforce over the "next few years." Still, the company told the WSJ that it has trained more than 700,000 workers globally through apprenticeships for jobs that involve working with robots, such as robot technicians. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images Amazon began incorporating robotics into its operations over a decade ago, when it bought robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012. Kiva made robots that moved bulky, unpackaged items around a facility. Since the acquisition, Amazon has introduced new robots, such as Proteus, its first fully autonomous mobile robot that can move freely throughout a warehouse. Proteus, which Amazon debuted in 2022, uses sensors to detect and navigate around objects in its path. It can lift as much as 880 pounds. Its task is to move heavy carts with packages to a loading dock, where packages can then be loaded onto trucks. Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the U.S., after Walmart. It is the fourth most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalization of over $2.3 trillion.
Mint
2 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Amazon is on the cusp of using more robots than humans in its warehouses
The automation of facilities is approaching a new milestone: There will soon be as many robots as humans. The e-commerce giant, which has spent years automating tasks previously done by humans in its facilities, has deployed more than one million robots in those workplaces, Amazon said. That is the most it has ever had and near the count of human workers at the facilities. Company warehouses buzz with metallic arms plucking items from shelves and wheeled droids that motor around the floors ferrying the goods for packaging. In other corners, automated systems help sort the items, which other robots assist in packaging for shipment. One of Amazon's newer robots, called Vulcan, has a sense of touch that enables it to pick items from numerous shelves. Amazon has taken recent steps to connect its robots to its order-fulfillment processes, so the machines can work in tandem with each other and with humans. 'They're one step closer to that realization of the full integration of robotics," said Rueben Scriven, research manager at Interact Analysis, a robotics consulting firm. Now some 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, the company said. The growing automation has helped Amazon improve productivity, while easing pressure on the company to solve problems such as heavy staff turnover at its fulfillment centers. Mobile robots reposition package carts at the Amazon facility in Shreveport. For some Amazon workers, the increasing automation has meant replacing menial, repetitive work lifting, pulling and sorting with more skilled assignments managing the machines. 'I thought I was going to be doing heavy lifting, I thought I was going to be walking like crazy," said Neisha Cruz, who spent five years picking items at an Amazon warehouse in Windsor, Conn., before she was trained to oversee robotic systems. Today she sits in front of a computer screen in a Tempe, Ariz., office making sure mobile robots inside Amazon facilities across the U.S. are working properly. She earns about 2.5 times more pay than she did when she started at Amazon. Robots are also supplanting some employees, helping the company to slow hiring. Amazon employs about 1.56 million people overall, with the majority working in warehouses. The average number of employees Amazon had per facility last year, roughly 670, was the lowest recorded in the past 16 years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, which compared the company's reported workforce with estimates of its facility count. The number of packages that Amazon ships itself per employee each year has also steadily increased since at least 2015 to about 3,870 from about 175, the analysis found, an indication of the company's productivity gains. Some of Amazon's newer facilities, such as those built for same-day delivery, have 'smaller employee footprints and help us deliver with greater speed," a company spokesman said. Amazon is also rolling out artificial intelligence in its warehouses, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said recently, 'to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots." Amazon said it will cut the size of its total workforce in the next several years. The second-largest private employer in the U.S., Amazon is a bellwether for a range of businesses automating work around the country. Its broad rollout of robots shows how technological advances are accelerating, transforming factory floors and rippling through labor markets. The company began introducing advanced robotics to its warehouses after it paid $775 million in 2012 to buy Kiva Systems, which made robots that ferried shelves of products around. Early on, robots moved large amounts of unpackaged items, a physically difficult task for a human to do. Over time, the machines began taking on even more challenging assignments, such as packaging, sorting products and lifting heavy items. Amazon's automation advances are on display at its 3-million-square-foot facility in Shreveport, La. There, more than six dozen robotic arms sort, stack and consolidate millions of items. Robots also zip carts of packages for loading onto trucks, help package customer paper bags for orders and transport products to be in position for packaging. One of the machines uses computer vision and small robotic arms. Robots perform several tasks working with humans. The robotic system that helps sort inventory moves products to an employee, who then picks the items that fill an order. Another reaches for hard-to-grab items inside shelves, with the supervision of a human worker. Products move 25% faster through the facility than at other sites. Amazon has trained more than 700,000 workers across the world for higher-paying jobs that can include working with robotics, the company said. The increased use of automation, including over a dozen robotic arms in Shreveport, has helped Amazon improve productivity. 'You have completely new jobs being created," such as robot technicians, said Yesh Dattatreya, senior applied scientist at Amazon Robotics. Warehouse workers are being trained in mechatronics and robotics apprenticeships. Dattatreya is leading a newly created Amazon team from the company's Bay Area innovation lab to put more advanced artificial-intelligence systems into its robotics. The goal, he said, is to turn future warehouse robots into assistants that can respond to verbal commands, such as to unload a trailer. Keshia Jenkins troubleshoots a stalled mobile robot at Amazon's Shreveport fulfillment center. Amazon has been testing a humanoid robot, its manufacturer Agility Robotics said. The robots, which have legs, arms and a head and have been tested with tasks such as recycling containers at Amazon, are still in research and development, Amazon said. Amazon Robotics Chief Technologist Tye Brady said in an interview that the company will continue to need many workers and that new robots are meant to make their jobs easier, not displace them. Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director at the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that advocates on the behalf of warehouse employees, said robotics haven't changed jobs as much in smaller Amazon sites as in large fulfillment centers to date. Yet Kaoosji expressed concern about the longer-term impact on employment. The company's 'dream is to have significant reduction of workforce in high-density facilities," he said. Write to Sebastian Herrera at
